Miklós Benedek

Miklós Benedek (28 September 1946 – 9 January 2024) was a Hungarian actor and writer. He is most noted for his role of Mr. Fritz Teufel in the 1986 movie Cat City.

Early life
Miklós Benedek was born on 28 September 1946. His father Tibor Benedek was a Hungarian actor. Shortly after his parents divorced, Benedek moved in with his mother. His father committed suicide in 1963 when Miklós was in second grade. When Benedek reached high school, he studied in the Russian sector of ELTE Radnóti Miklós School. In 1965, Benedek, along with Péter Valcz and Tibor Dévényi, won the Hungarian Who Knows What? parody category award. Shortly after, in 1969, Benedek graduated from the Hungarian University of Theater and Film in Budapest, where he studied in the class of Miklós Szinetár.

Career


After graduating from university, Benedek signed a contract with National Theatre by Béla Both, where he played for 14 years between 1969 and 1983. After he cut his contract with the National Theatre, he played for the Katona József Theater starting in 1983. Between 1991—1992 and 1993–1996, Benedek was the administrator of the Hungarian Chamber of Actors and in 2003, he again cut contracts with Katona József Theater. Between 1997 and 2007, he became a teacher at The University of Film and Arts where he previously studied. During that time in 2003, Benedek began playing for the National Theater again. In 2009, he was fired along with 6 of his colleagues and in the same year, he became a freelancer, playing in different shows around the world. In 2017, he was included in Tibor Orlai's Orlais Produkciós Irodá.

Benedek's character is defined as humorous with an ironic cleverness. He is one of the singers in Hungaroton's album, Budapesti Orfeum.

Death
Benedek died on 9 January 2024, at the age of 77.

Plays

 * Archangel Raphael in Imre Madách's The Tragedy of Man
 * Doctor Lombardi in Carlo Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters
 * Pretzels in Ernő Szép's May
 * Poins in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2
 * The Doctor in Maurice Maeterlinck's The Miracle of St. Anthony
 * Lentulus in George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion
 * General Varravin in Aleksandr Sukhovo-Kobylin's The Death of Tarelkin
 * Second Lawyer in Molière's Mr. Gömböc
 * Pettersen in Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck
 * King Bobéche in Jacques Offenbach's Bluebeard
 * King Wenceslas in Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi
 * Knight Ripafratta in Carlos Goldini's Mirandolina
 * Cinzano in Schneider and Ondráček's Gentlemenek
 * Montague in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
 * Christian in Magnier's Oszkár
 * Jaques in Shakespeare's As You Like It
 * Pósalaky in Zsigmond Móricz's Be Good Until Death
 * Long in Dario Fo's Archangels Don't Play Pinball

TV Movies

 * Gimnazista in The Confrontation (1969)
 * Medveczki in Svédcsavar (1975)
 * Pszichiáter in Illetlenek (1977)
 * Lord in Wrong-Doers (1979)
 * Pszichológus in The Fortress (1979)
 * Mr. P. Smith in The Pagan Madonna (1981)
 * Mr. Fritz Teufel in Cat City (1986)
 * Kolowrat in Miklós Akli (1986)
 * Sipos in Illatszertár (1987)
 * Andrej Andrejevics in Stalin's Bride (1991)
 * Nagy Levin in Three Guardsmen in Africa (1996)
 * Professor in Espresso (1998)
 * Mr. Fritz Teufel in Cat City 2 (2007)
 * Iván in S.O.S. Love! (2007)