Robert Jan Szemis, Actor and Friend

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.