The Józsefváros room-kitchen was considered luxury compared to the Mária-Valéria site, where Irén Psota's family lived for a while after they were evicted due to rent arrears. The alcoholic father not only abused his family, but once tried to kill his wife with a pistol, for which he was imprisoned for seven years - and then moved back in with the family. Despite the traumas she experienced, Irén Psota realized her childhood dream of becoming an actress.
Most of the time, we see Irén Psota in front of us as someone whose overflowing good humor can't be stopped, but he had plenty to draw from for his dramatic roles. He was born during the Horthy era, on March 28, 1929, in a basement apartment on Tömő Street.
He grew up with a brutal, alcoholic father who, after trying to kill his wife, went to prison and then moved back in with the family: revenge was not left behind. Little Irén then tried to commit suicide with medication. He hated his father, more than once he witnessed him dragging his mother by her hair around the farm. His father ended up hanging himself on a playground swing.
The two-time Kossuth award-winning actress later commented on her childhood traumas that she was never able to recover from, but drew strength from them on stage.
As a child he was always hungry,
therefore, according to Károly Makk, her later fiance, even as an adult, she always had something with her, say half a loaf, to have something to eat.
But he didn't fare any better with Károll Makk, whom he met while in college: according to the director Psota's recollections, he forced her to have numerous abortions, and all this during the Ratkó era, when illegal abortions were risky from every point of view. On top of everything, at their planned wedding, he did not marry Irén Psota, but the actress Marianne Krencsey.
A woman longing for a child
Among the actress' great loves was the choreographer László Seregi, whom she met before college in an amateur theater group. However, her greatest love is considered to be János Molnár, who was an interior designer known as Joe. Joe Molnár tried to defect in 1956 and then went to prison. Psota's last husband was Tamás Ungvári, with whom they lived together for 12 years, also not without problems. The actress spent her last years alone and with her dogs.
In the recording below, he sings one of the greatest hits of his life - as Sebes Maca - from the film Felfelé a leijtőn
He received the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival for his role in Károly Makk's House under the rocks Her memorable stage performances were Bertold Brecht's Mama Kurázsi , the main role in Federico García Lorca's Yerma , a woman yearning for a child, and the character of the long-lived wife in the geronto-show Wreck Derby
Featured image: MTI/Zsolt Zih
