He grew up in a family where his acting aspirations were not supported, his talent was never recognized, nor even his successes.

This is why Erzsi Máthé doubted herself even as a Kossuth Award-winning actress, and perhaps she helped the young people so much to make it easier for them. The national actor's funeral will be held on June 20, 2023, at the Fiumei út cemetery.

An actress dies, and like the greatest, she leaves the last joke for herself. It was not possible to know what was in his will, or even where he was at all. He wanted to keep the big "joke" so secret that it took about two weeks before the last valid copy was found.

But the will is not the point here, but love, clarity and care. The love that Erzsi Máthé could only show to very few people, and he always hit them with some rudeness - of course, this did not deceive those who really loved him. Clarity, which in recent times was often clouded by illness, but when it was necessary, his heart and mind were in place, and although he did not show it, he knew exactly how to make a decision. Finally, the care that characterized him throughout his life. He supported young talents, for example, and although he measured love narrowly, many people can thank him for helping them financially on the field.

He somehow thought of everyone but himself

- says Zsuzsa Gyurkovics, and thinks that maybe all this happened because her own child died when she was very young, they couldn't help her in the 50s.

But we don't talk about that, because that's not what's important, but what a great actress she was, and when she entered somewhere and said in her characteristic, deep voice, "hello!", no one stood there.

(…)

He walked out of the theater

The friendship between Zsuzsa Gyurkovics and Erzsi Máthé was such that they knew everything about each other and discussed everything. They had lunch together once a week, when Erzsi Máthé was also willing to eat. Even now, Zsuzsika only speaks restrainedly, with great tact, she doesn't want to betray her girlfriend, but how could she still tell what Erzsi Máthé was like, and what was in her life that shaped her like this, such a difficult nature, loud, good-humored, lovable phenomenon?

"He was born into a Swabian family as Erzsi Mertz - Hilda Gobbi gave him the name Erzsi Máthé - but he did not receive the basics that a child needs at home.

She was not encouraged, praised, or supported to become an actress, and although her mother, who raised her alone, watched her in all her roles, she was never satisfied with her. The audience loved her, shouted and applauded, her mother only said bad things to her," Zsuzsika tells us, and it breaks one's heart when one sees what the lack of parental recognition does to the life of even a large-format actress like Máthé Erzsi.

She was already a Kossuth Award-winning actress, a member of the Society of the Immortals, when she still doubted whether she was good enough.

However, she played a lot at the National Theater and then at the Katona József Theater in Budapest, and then she played unforgettable characters in cabaret scenes as well - she was both dramatic, queenly and full of comedy. In addition, he watched the games of the young people from the audience, for whom he pushed, who he supported with money, expressing his love in this way. "He was able to feel what it's like when someone doesn't get the attention, care, so that someone notices his talent, which needs to be helped."

His last performance, at the age of 85, still ended sadly: he told his girlfriend that after he had played his part, he watched the rehearsal from the second row of the auditorium and asked him to stay there even when the director brought everyone on stage at the end order. Maybe his leg hurt, but his request was not accepted, and he stood up and said: goodbye! He walked out of the theater and no one followed him.

But of course we are not talking about that either.

The last glass of water

As well as the fact that since Erzsi Máthé had no relatives, her funeral and cremation did not go so easily either. Although he considered three institutions as his own, it took about three weeks before the money was collected and who was entitled to take action.

But how could one still subtly convey how vulnerable even a large-format artist who has been at the service of the public all his life can become? Of course, the fact that he changed his will at the last moment and left everything to whomever he considered worthy contributed to the situation - only he didn't know about it.

The one who gave me the last glass of water is the inheritor of everything

says the will. It took about two weeks for the picture to come together, but there are few stories more touching and uplifting than this, that the artist, who had difficulty expressing his love in his life, testified to his powerful soul at the end of his life, as a last "joke".

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Featured image: Erzsi Máthé, who died at the age of ninety-five, was a Kossuth and Jászai Mari prize-winning actor, a worthy and excellent artist, the nation's actor. The recording was made on September 10, 2014 in the studio of MTVA Kunigunda útjai. MTI/MTVA/Szolt Zih