Itala Békés has passed away. The Kossuth and Jászai Mari Award-winning actress died on Monday at the age of 97, as announced by the Örkény Theater to MTI. According to their statement, the versatile and talented artist will be farewelled in a private family ceremony, as per her wishes.
Itala Békés was born on March 23, 1927, in Debrecen. She came from an artistic family: her father, István Békés, was a journalist, writer, cultural historian, and collector of anecdotes, and he married Italian actress Rita Furlani, whom he met in Berlin. Of their five children, two pairs of twins were born, but two of Itala’s siblings passed away early. Her twin brother, András Békés, was a Kossuth Award-winning theater director.
Her parents only supported their artistic pursuits if they also acquired a breadwinning profession, so Itala Békés trained as a seamstress.
She secretly applied to the Academy of Dramatic Art without parental consent and was accepted on her first attempt. She completed her studies in 1950 but had already been performing since 1947 at the Pioneer and Youth Theater, the Jókai Stage, and the Hungarian People’s Army Theater (now and formerly the Vígszínház).
In 1957, she joined the Vidám Theater, and from 1958, she was a member of the Madách Theater for 50 years before working at the Örkény Theater, where she performed until the age of 95.
In 1957, she and her brother presented one of Hungary’s first pantomime performances. Itala Békés was a pioneer of the one-woman theater in Hungary, a genre with which she traveled the world. Her production The Woman!? (1969) was performed over a thousand times. She produced and performed 26 shows, released ballroom dance instruction records, and launched creative children’s programs. Her production Picnic with Itala Békés at the Madách Tolnay Salon evoked the atmosphere of childhood family gatherings and, after three successful years in Budapest, went on a national tour.
Her artistic range was remarkably broad, delivering convincing performances both as a dancer and a dramatic actress. She played over a hundred roles, including a 13-year stint in the musical The Gift of God, and portrayed Yente, the matchmaker, in Fiddler on the Roof. In the Örkény Theater’s production of Boris Godunov, she played five characters, some requiring acrobatic movements. One of her most cherished roles was Adelaida Bruckner in István Örkény’s Catsplay. A memorable late role was her portrayal of Firs, the servant, in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at the Örkény Theater.
She appeared in over a hundred Hungarian films and TV movies (The Kid, The Red Countess, Abigél, A Miracle in Krakow, Run to Catch Up, 25 Fireman Street, What We Did on Saturday Night). In Ildikó Enyedi’s On Body and Soul, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, she brilliantly portrayed a cleaning woman.
From 1991, she was a stage movement teacher at the Teacher Training Institute of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and the Lakner Studio. In 1992, she founded the Thought School for artistic skill development. She also taught at the University of Theater and Film Arts.
Her work earned numerous accolades: the Jászai Mari Award in 1964, the title of Meritorious Artist in 1982, the Outstanding Artist Award in 2006, and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in 1998. She received the Kossuth Award in 2010 for her artistic career and the Budapest Award in 2021. In 2015, at the 150th anniversary of the University of Theater and Film Arts, she was honored with a diamond diploma, and in 2020, a ruby diploma commemorating the 70th anniversary of her graduation.
István Örkény once encouraged her to write her autobiography. The book How I Became a Nobody—a novel, social history, and theater chronicle—was first published in 1990 and went through three editions. In 2009, she published a collection of short stories titled Read on the Bus, and in 2012, she released Heavenly Playmates, sharing anecdotes about her fellow actors.
