Peter Haumann Dead at 81
Péter Haumann, a winner of the Kossuth and Jászai Mari Prizes, a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, and a national actor, died on Saturday afternoon after a long and terrible illness, according to his family. He was eighty-one years old when the great actor died. He was recognized for his spectacular performances.
Péter Haumann was born on May 17, 1941, in Budapest. He trained to be a doctor, but one of his teachers at the Toldy Ferenc High School, who recognized his brilliant talent, steered him towards a career in acting. His history teacher was, by the way, future Prime Minister József Antall.
After graduating from the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts, he started his career at the Csokonai Theatre in Debrecen, before moving to Pécs. He played at the newly established 25th Theatre and briefly at the József Attila Theatre.
In 1973 he joined the Madách Theatre, where he became the leading artist in the company and was seen more than 300 times in the role of Gus, the crippled theatre cat in Cats. In 1988 he joined the National Theatre, then the Arizona Theatre, then the Radnóti Theatre for a year, and from 1994 to 2016 he was a member of the Katona József Theatre, where he played Harpagon in Molière’s The Miser, among other roles.
He has appeared in Hungarian films and TV dramas, with his unforgettable performance as the Patás in Indul a bakterház. He has also appeared in Fekete gyémántok, Hajnali háztetők, A hídember, and Szabadság, szerelem, among others. He has also made his mark as a voice actor, and Hungarian audiences will certainly remember his distinctive voice as, for example, Gargamel in The Smurfs. He also dubbed the French actor Louis de Funès several times.
The last time the audience saw Péter Haumann on stage was last September when he returned for the 1500th anniversary performance of Cats at the Madách Theatre. The musical premiered in 1983 and the actor had already appeared in the original production. Television viewers could watch the actor for the last time in the first and second seasons of the comedy series Apatigris.
He has three children, Máté, Petra, and Dávid, among whom Máté and Petra are also actors.
