Jan Rubeš

Acting

Jan Rubeš

Born 1920-06-06 · Volyně, Czechoslovakia

Jan Ladislav Rubeš CM (6 June 1920 – 29 June 2009) was a Czech-Canadian bass opera singer and actor. Born in Czechoslovakia, he graduated in 1945 from the Conservatory of Music in Prague. Rubes went on to join the Prague Opera House as their youngest basso singer. He also performed at the Pilsen Opera House in leading roles in his early years. By 1948, he was chosen to represent Czechoslovakia at the International Music Festival held in Geneva and won first prize in his category. He emigrated to Canada on New Year's Eve 1948 with hopes of creating a greater musical career. As a member of the Canadian Opera Company, he achieved recognition for his roles, as Boris in "Boris Godunov", Schigolch in "Lulu" and as Mephisto in "Faust". As well, he served as the company's director of touring and program development. Branching out into radio and, eventually, TV, he wrote and hosted from 1975-83 TVOntario's "Guess What?" and acted in many TV dramas, later receiving the Earle Grey Award for lifetime work in Canadian television.

Acting credits

Witness poster
7.1

While protecting an Amish boy—the sole witness to a brutal murder—and his mother, a detective is forced to seek refuge within their community when his own life comes under threat.

Witness

1985

D2: The Mighty Ducks poster
6.2

After Gordon Bombay's hockey comeback is cut short he is named coach of Team USA Hockey for the Junior Goodwill Games. Bombay reunites the Mighty Ducks and introduces a few new players, however, he finds himself distracted by his newfound fame and must regather if the Ducks are to defeat tournament favourites Iceland.

D2: The Mighty Ducks

1994

Deceived poster
5.8

The murder of a museum curator places art dealer Jack Saunders under suspicion for selling forged treasures to museums. When Jack suddenly dies in a car crash, his wife Adrienne tries to discover what he did on her own. She finds that she knew little about the man she was married to. The more she learns about her husband's possible illegal activities and double life, the more she places her daughter, and herself, in grave danger.

Deceived

1991

Snow Falling on Cedars poster
6.1

In the 1950s, a Japanese-American fisherman is suspected of killing his neighbour at sea. For Ishmael, a local reporter, the trial strikes a deep emotional chord when he finds his ex-lover is linked to the case. As he investigates the killing, he uncovers some startling clues that lead him to a shocking discovery.

Snow Falling on Cedars

1999

Class Action poster
6.3

A liberal activist lawyer alienated his daughter Maggie years ago when she discovered his many affairs. Now a conservative corporate lawyer, Maggie agrees to go up against her father in court. To gain promotion, she must defend an auto manufacturer against charges that their explosion-prone station wagons are unsafe. As her mother begs for peace, Maggie takes on her dad in a trial that turns increasingly personal and nasty.

Class Action

1991

The Amateur poster
5.4

A researcher for the CIA who convinces his superiors to send him to the eastern bloc in order to avenge the murder of his wife by enemy agents discovers a web of deception underneath his wife's death.

The Amateur

1981

Music from Another Room poster
5.6

Music From Another Room is a romantic comedy that follows the exploits of Danny, a young man who grew up believing he was destined to marry the girl he helped deliver as a five year old boy when his neighbor went into emergency labor. Twenty-five years later, Danny returns to his hometown and finds the irresistible Anna Swann but she finds it easy to resist him since she is already engaged to dreamboat Eric, a very practical match. In pursuit of Anna, Danny finds himself entangled with each of the eccentric Swanns including blind, sheltered Nina, cynical sister Karen, big brother Bill and dramatic mother Grace as he fights to prove that fate should never be messed with and passion should never be practical.

Music from Another Room

1998

Roommates poster
5.7

An elderly, yet young-at-heart man, moves in with his grandson, and both their lives turn upside-down.

Roommates

1995

The Kiss poster
5.8

After the death of her mother, a teenage girl is faced with bizarre supernatural occurrences when her mother's estranged sister arrives and begins to infiltrate her and her father's lives.

The Kiss

1988

One Magic Christmas poster
5.9

Ginny Grainger, a young mother, rediscovers the joy and beauty of Christmas, thanks to the unshakable faith of her six-year-old daughter Abbie and Gideon, Ginny's very own guardian angel.

One Magic Christmas

1985

The Birds II: Land's End poster
4.0

Ted and his family have just moved to the sleepy coastal town of Gull Island so that he can complete work on his thesis. Everything couldn’t seem more picturesque about their new, seaside home… that is, except for the increasing number of aggressively behaving birds.

The Birds II: Land's End

1994

Dead of Winter poster
6.0

A fledgling actress is lured to a remote mansion for a screen-test, soon discovering she is actually a prisoner in the middle of a blackmail plot.

Dead of Winter

1987

Serving in Silence - The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story poster
5.7

After serving in the military for more than twenty years, including a tour of duty in Vietnam, Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer (Glenn Close) had seen her share of battles. But nothing could prepare her for the fight ahead: an intensely personal struggle against the U.S. Army when she becomes the highest ranking officer ever to be discharged for being a lesbian. With the support of her partner Diane (Judy Davis), Cammermeyer undertakes an against-all-odds battle against the Army's policy. But to do so, she must risk everything – her career, her privacy and even the love of her family.

Serving in Silence - The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story

1995

The Incredible Journey poster
6.6

The story of three pets, a cat and two dogs, who lose their owners when they are all on vacation. Can they find their way home?

The Incredible Journey

1963

Our Fathers poster
6.5

In the '80s, priests and especially the Father Geoghan arrested for sexual abuse of minors. Cardinal Law, also indicted, and the diocese was aware of the actions of these men of the church and was kept secret for years, until the victims decide to seek redress.

Our Fathers

2005

Never Too Late poster
5.5

Four old friends reunite to investigate the death of a good friend.

Never Too Late

1996

The Amityville Curse poster
4.0

After purchasing a property in Amityville, New York, Debbie and her husband invite three of their closest friends to help renovate. Immediately uneasy in her new surroundings, she begins experiencing shockingly vivid nightmares.

The Amityville Curse

1990

Devlin poster
6.0

A troubled cop is framed in the murder of his brother-in-law, whose father is a political boss.

Devlin

1992

The Experts poster
4.6

Travis and Wendell are two down-on-their-luck New Yorkers who think they're relocating to a small town in Nebraska to open a nightclub. What they don't know is they've actually been abducted by a KGB operative and flown to the Soviet Union, where they'll unwittingly serve as "experts" on all things cool in America. The town, created expressly for KGB spies-in-training, is meant to serve as a training ground for Soviet agents. What can these two hapless Americans possibly teach the Soviet spies, and will they ever learn they are not actually in Nebraska?

The Experts

1989

Courage Mountain poster
5.9

At the beginning of World War I, a young Swiss girl is sent off to boarding school.

Courage Mountain

1990

The Marriage Bed poster
8.5

Linda Griffiths stars as very pregnant Annie Graham, who's about to give birth to her third child in seven years. Annie looks back via flashbacks at how her own plans for a career got sidetracked and how her marriage suddenly went off the rails on a crazy train. At the same time she's trying to cope with a Christmas season full of inlaws, family and neighbours.. and a husband who's gone awol in order to 'find himself'.

The Marriage Bed

1986

The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick poster
6.0

The early 1960s: In preparation for his Bar Mitzvah, a Jewish boy, Max Glick (Noam Zylberman) from a small Manitoba community with an overbearing family tries to navigate his coming-of-age with his family's condescension and bigotry using his sarcastic, Jewish humour. The town's rabbi dies, and a sub-plot develops in which Max's father (Aaron Schwartz) and grandfather (Jan Rubes)-both synagogue leaders-are saddled with a traditional Hassidic rabbi who sticks out like a sore thumb among the otherwise assimilated Jewish community. To make matters more difficult, Max likes a Catholic girl (14 year old Fairuza Baulk in just her third film), whom he later competes with in a piano competition. The quirky, fun-loving rabbi tries to help him with his problems, yet harbours a secret ambition of his own. Filmed in Winnipeg and rural Beausejour, Manitoba, Canada.

The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick

1988

The Christmas Secret poster
5.9

In this magical story, a scientist sets out to prove that reindeer can fly and along the way discovers the true meaning of faith, family and Christmas.

The Christmas Secret

2000

No artwork available
6.0

An unsold TV series pilot about three single witches living together who try to conjure up their idea of the "perfect man." One day, their wish comes true when a seemingly perfect man named Darryl Van Horne moves into town and sweeps them off their feet by making all their dreams come true. However, they soon realize that "perfect" isn't exactly the best word to describe their devilish new man after strange and unexplainable incidents begin occurring. The pilot was inspired by both John Updike's original novel and the 1987 movie that followed.

The Witches of Eastwick

1992