Theodor Pištěk, Czech Oscar-winning costume designer, dies at 93
Theodor Pištěk, the celebrated Czech costume and stage designer, painter, and Academy Award winner best known for his work on the film Amadeus, has died at the age of 93. He passed away on Wednesday at his home in the town of Mukařov, east of Prague, with the news confirmed by his family. Born Oct. 25, 1932, in Prague to parents who were both actors, Pištěk grew up immersed in the arts and later graduated from Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts in 1958. He began building his reputation in Czech cinema in the late 1950s, creating striking historical costumes for films directed by František Vláčil, including Marketa Lazarová and The Valley of the Bees, which are now regarded as classics of Czech filmmaking.
Pištěk’s international breakthrough came through his longtime collaboration with director Miloš Forman, whom he befriended during their mandatory military service in communist Czechoslovakia. Despite Forman emigrating after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion, the two continued working together across borders. Pištěk won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Amadeus, filmed in Czechoslovakia, later calling the honor the happiest day of his career. He also earned an Oscar nomination for Valmont, for which he won a French César Award, and contributed costumes to The People vs. Larry Flynt. Beyond film, Pištěk was a lifelong painter whose works—often inspired by his passion for motor racing, which he actively pursued until the mid-1970s—were exhibited internationally. After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, he designed the ceremonial uniforms for the guards at Prague Castle, and in 2000 he received a state decoration from President Václav Havel, cementing his legacy as one of the most influential visual artists in modern Czech cultural history.
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