Talk:Vladimír Pucholt

Robert Kilpatrick : “I had an application from an individual called Pucholt...”

PDF transciption of an interview with Robert Kilpatrick

(to expand the article – there's a now expanded one on cs.wikipedia cs:Vladimír Pucholt, you may use as well)

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pp. 19, 20 of the PDF transcription

Robert Kilpatrick:

I had an application from an individual called Pucholt. Vladimir Pucholt. Nationality Czech. He had listed – you’re allowed five choices – he had listed four London medical schools and Sheffield. Turned it over, there was a referee report and the referee was Lindsay Anderson.

Now Lindsay Anderson I knew, because of an interest in film, was a leading film and theatre director. He had directed the film If, a most extraordinary film of a revolt in a public school against the public school system.

So I read this and it was an extraordinary reference because it said that this individual had stowed away from the Czech regime on a plane. So I said, “Let’s ask him.” So he came and he came in with a motorcycle helmet on his head, took it off and he showed what Lindsay Anderson, who I later met and talked to a great deal.

I remember saying to him, “How did you spot Malcolm McDowell?” Because he was the one that introduced Malcom McDowell to film. He says, “It’s easy, Robert. You’ve never any difficulty.” He says, “If you’re seeing 500 people walking in to a theatre or into a big gymnasium, you’ll spot Malcom McDowell. He’ll hit you.” And he’s right. And this chap hit me. It was quite extraordinary.

So I said to him, “Tell me, how did you get here?” So he said that he had become 18 in Prague and he wanted to do medicine. It was iron curtain days, clad iron regime, and he was told he couldn’t go to medical school, couldn’t go to university until he had expiated by working in a factory or a farm for a year. So he did, in a factory. And he reapplied and was told that he could now go to higher education but not to medicine, that was not on. And they offered a range of topics and he chose dramatic art and in five years he became the leading Czechoslovak actor and he’s in the early films that Milos Foreman, who did One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in Hollywood, who had made these films in Czechoslovakia and he had become his leading male actor. A Blonde in Love, The Fireman’s Ball – these are films.

And he met Lindsay Anderson in Prague at a big film conference. They talked and this Pucholt told Lindsay Anderson, “I don’t want to be an actor, I want to be a doctor.” And Anderson said, “You must be mad. The world’s at your feet! If you can get over to the US, you’ll...”

And he said, “No, I want to be a doctor.” And Anderson, who’s now dead, did something I think quite extraordinary. He said, “If you can get to England, I’ll support you.” And he supported him financially for six years of medicine because he had to do first M. B. because he had no biological training or chemistry at all.

I then said to him, “Why did you choose Sheffield?” And he looked, he blushed a little. And he said, “Well, I have a map of England and Wales on my wall and I threw a dart at it.” [Laughs] And of course he’d aimed for the centre and it was Sheffield.

So we took him. He had a tough time first year. But he graduated with the gold medal and he’s an example of polymathic talent. Whatever he did, he would be –

Morrice McCrae:

And drive.

Robert Kilpatrick:

And drive, which is part of polymath. He’s a paediatrician in Canada now. And he, most extraordinary... Lindsay Anderson died while I was president of the General Medical Council. So I was in London. And they had a memorial, a very unusual memorial in the Roundhouse, the theatre.

And I was asked to go because Pucholt came as a protégé to contribute and I was a guest of Pucholt. And there I was sitting in a theatre with Alan Bates, Alan Bennett, Maggie Smith, all these who had all been – all worked with Lindsay Anderson and obviously he was a very influential individual.

And Pucholt went up and he recounted his interview. There were gasps when he said, “And he said to me, ‘Yes, you can have a place’.” And it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

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p. 1 of the PDF transcription

Sir Robert Kilpatrick, Lord Kilpatrick of Kincraig, graduated from Edinburgh University in 1949. At the height of his career he was professor of medicine and dean of the faculty of medicine at Leicester University and President of the General Medical Council. Later he was also President of the British Medical Association. He held honorary doctorates of five universities and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was made CBE in 1979 and was knighted in 1986. He became a life peer in 1996.

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References

12:34, 20 November 2024 (UTC) -kan-fan- (talk) 12:34, 20 November 2024 (UTC)