Well-loved stunt man Szobi Cseh has died

Szobi Cseh, one of the greatest and best-loved stunt men of Romania, also an actor and director has died at Bucharest Fundeni Clinical Hospital early on Friday from a long illness, the institute said in a release to AGERPRES.

Csech, 71, died of severe liver, heart and lung complications, failing to respond to the applied intensive treatment, the release added.

Stunt man, actor and director Szabolcs Imre Cseh was born on December 11, 1942, in the city of Miercurea Ciuc (central Harghita County) and grew up in Brasov.

He inherited his physical qualities from his parents, as his mother was a tennis champion and his father, a bank manager, was a sports lover. In the yard of their home he built tennis courts.

Csech graduated from the Institute of Physical Education and Sport in Bucharest in 1966 and specialized in martial arts, gymnastics, fencing, riding and mountain climbing.

In 1966 he was hired fight advisor, with director Sergiu Nicoalescu's help, at the National Cinematography Centre, and set up the first stunt school in Romania. In the period 1967-1979, he collaborated with the Buftea Film Studio, and worked on all films made by the Romanian film studios that contained sequences of action-fighting, and performed the hardest stunts, some of them being unique in the world.

The first on-screen appearance of stunt man Szobi was in 1970, in the film Mihai Viteazul — Unirea [Michael the Brave — Union], directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu. As an actor, he debuted in the film 'An August in flames' (1973), directed by Dan Pita and Alexandru Tatos. Since 1965, Szobi Cseh collaborated on the making of more than 120 feature and TV films, of which 25 are foreign productions or co-productions. Since 1974 he...