Robert
Jan Szemis
Obituary
Robert
Jan Szemis was a good friend, marvellous actor and wonderful happy
person. He had many gifted attributes, namely loyalty, discretion and
wisdom. These qualities were not always to the fore in his later
years when his illness took hold of him, but at the height of his
powers, he was greatly admired in his acting profession for an
ability to say his lines perfectly in a way that made a scene shine
from the page. During filming he was always there to help other
actors work through their lines and was greatly supportive of them,
so much so in his later years he designed his own film course called
'Acting for Camera' offered at Strathclyde University Ramshorne
theatre.
When
he was employed by Palm Tree Entertainment he starred in 5 films,
Love the One You're With, Finding Fortune, Winter Warrior, The Bone
Hunter and Axe Raider. In the trilogy Celtic Warrior he made the part
he played of Roderich Haile his own and went on to play this role in
3 films. On film sets when he worked as an actor, casting director or
agent he was also there as a calming influence on the proceedings and
everyone confided in him about their problems He was always there
with a helping hand or kind word. Never once in all his life did he
ever raise his voice in anger to me and if he encountered a problem
he was always discrete, wise and helpful. He had a great ability to
defuse a situation with kind words or a joke.
In
his earlier career he was the Face of the Glasgow Evening Times
promotional pages. Prior to acting he was Head Croupier in a number
of International Casinos from Sri Lanka to the Bahamas.
After
working on a number of feature films, he became an actors agent and
ran his won agency called Academy Casting based in Glasgow. He
therefore helped to develop the careers of a number of actors from
Scotland by arranging work for them internationally.
However
he was brought up in Glasgow under difficult circumstances. His
father came from the Grodno, in Poland but fled the enforced
resettlemants during World War 1 to settle in Scotland. Bringing up a
family was hard but his father got a job at the famous Roxy cinema as
a lift operator. As a child Robert liked to go in the lift with his
father enjoying the excitement of the crowds. There he got an inside
view of lots of films as a child, that developed into a love of
acting in adulthood.
Robert
is remembered fondly by his acting colleagues, particularly in the
Gay Community, for his charming joy de vie and quick witted approach
the techniques of acting.
I will always remember Robert's beautiful warm smile. This picture was taken after Christmas 2015 when there was a window of opportunity for him to combat alcohol dependency. Sadly he was unable to overcome it and died peacefully of liver and multiple organ failure on Sunday 9th of April 2017.
