Miklós Benedek, awarded the title of Actor of the Nation, Kossuth and Jászai Mari Prize winner, theater director, worthy and excellent artist, died on Tuesday morning at the age of 78 after an illness he bore with dignity, the family informed MTI.

The hereditary member of the Society of the Immortals was on stage until the end of his life

- they wrote in the statement.

Benedek Miklós was born in Budapest in 1946, his father Tibor Benedek, an indispensable figure of the Pest cabaret. According to his memories, he wanted to be an actor since he was five years old. He attended Miklós Szinetár's class at the Academy of Theater and Film Arts. In 1965, he and one of his classmates, Péter Vallai, won the parody category of Ki mit tud. He graduated in 1969 and then signed a contract with the National Theatre. He was the spiritual father of the musical production Budapest Orfeum, which was created in 1979 together with Angela Császár and László Szacsvay. The legendary performance is different

it was played on stages almost four hundred times over a decade, and they also toured the world with it. From 1983, he was a member of the Katona József Színház for twenty years, where he also started directing.

György Schwajda invited him to the new National Theater, which opened in 2002, and played Prospero in Shakespeare's comedy The Tempest. A year later, already under the management of Tamás Jordán, he became a member of the troupe, but in 2009 his contract was terminated, and he became a freelance artist again. From 1992, he taught at the College of Theater and Film Arts for fifteen years. In the nineties, he was the manager of the Hungarian Chamber of Actors, and since 2017 he has been a member of the company of the Orlais Production Office.

As a freelance artist, he played or directed in almost every theater in the country.

Miklós Benedek brought to life the figure, style and manners of the citizen of Pest between the two wars, but there was always a bit of a grimace, a bit of tragicomedy in his performance. He gave memorable performances in both classic roles and modern plays, including Mirandolina at Katona József Theater, The Death of Tarelkin and Füst Milan's Catullus, as well as Bulgakov's Escape. He played Hyppoli, the footman in the Játékszín, Pilates in the Master and Margarita in the National. At the Vígszínház, she appeared in the plays The Kissing Woman, Nora and The Game in the Castle.

As a director, he staged several plays by Heltai and Molnár, numerous comedies and musical plays, and he also directed the staging of László Szacsvay's Ernő Szép.

He also appeared in countless TV and feature films, such as Fényes selek, A Pagany Madonna, Miklós Akli, The three bodyguards in Africa, Presszó, Sorstalansag, But who are the Lumnitzer sisters? or SOS love!, Free fall. He starred in the TV movie "Tourné" and "The Szeleburdi family", he lent his voice to Mr. Teufel in the "Catcatcher" cartoons, and he was also the voice of Sut, the fox with a torn tail in Vuk.

Nagyobbik's son, Tibor Benedek, three-time Olympic champion water polo player and former national team captain of the Hungarian men's national team, died in 2020. His younger son, Albert, continues the family tradition and works as a director's assistant, writer and translator, as well as an actor.

In 1981, Miklós Benedek was awarded the Jászai Mari Award, and in 1989 he was awarded the title of Merited Artist. In 1998, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic, and in 2012 he was recognized as an outstanding artist. In 2016, he was awarded the Kossuth Award in recognition of his inimitably original, refined and profound playing style, his emblematic role formations that testify to an extraordinary sense of style, and his exceptional and deservedly highly valued artistic career, which also popularizes the world of classical cabaret. He has been a permanent member of the Society of the Immortals since 2020, last September he was chosen among the nation's actors to replace Lajos Balázsovits, who died on July 19.

Cover photo: Benedek Miklós, actor of the nation in Budapest on September 8, 2023. Photo: Gyula Czimbal / MTI