Mari Törőcsik

(23 November 1935, Pély – 16 April 2021, Szombathely)

The Nation’s Actor, two-time Kossuth Prize winner, the Kossuth Grand Prize, two-time Mari Jászai Prize winner, the titles Outstanding Artist and Artist of Merit, and a permanent member of the Company of Immortals – to name only a couple of her dozens of distinctions. She acted in films, starting with Merry-Go-Round, made in 1955. In 1976, she won the best actress award at Cannes for her performance in the film Mrs Déry, Where Are You?, directed by her husband Gyula Maár. She won recognitions and life achievement awards at a number of national and international film festivals. She was an actress at the National Theatre between 1958 and 1979. For the1979/80 season, she acted and served as artistic director for the Kisfaludy Theatre in Győr (now the National Theatre of Győr). Starting in 1980, she was a member of MAFILM’s company for one decade. Beginning in 1990, she performed at the Szigligeti Theatre in Szolnok. Between 1993 and 1996, she ran the Budapest Art Theatre. She taught as an associate professor at Budapest’s College of Theatre and Film Arts. Since 2002, she was once again a member of the National Theatre.

In 2008, during a routine hospital examination, her blood circulation dropped, her heart stopped, and she fell into a coma. Yet, days later, almost miraculously, she regained to consciousness with her memory and physical motion intact. At the Hungarian Film Digest’s opening in 2009, she stated, “I come from quite far away. But I have returned!”