Evzen Kolar Dies: Film Producer Of ‘Surf Ninjas’ & ‘City of Industry’ Was 67
Film producer and line producer Evzen Kolar has died in Los Angeles after a brief illness. He was 67.
Kolar served as VP Production at Fireline Productions (a subsidiary of the Armand Hammer Company) and CEO at Crossover Films, an independent film production company based in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In that time, he was a line producer on a number of features including the Sean Connery Bond film Never Say Never Again; Street Smart, which garnered Morgan Freeman his first Oscar nomination (Cannon Films); Master of the Universe (Dolph Lundgren); Bat 21 (Gene Hackman and Danny Glover); Double Impact (Jean- Claude Van Damme); and Storyville (James Spader and Jason Robards at 20th Century Fox).
In 1993, Kolar then established his own production company, KPI Entertainment, producing such films as the cult youth comedy Surf Ninjas, Delta of Venus, City of Industry, Inferno and Bruce Beresford’s Bride of the Wind.
He also produced the comedy The Boys and Girls from County Clare for the Samuel Goldwyn Co., which was an Official Selection at the Toronto International Film Festival and opened the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in its European Premiere.
The son of a diplomat, Kolar was born in Moravia, Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia). He began his film and TV career as a child actor before becoming an assistant director working throughout Europe on numerous commercials, TV projects and features.
After settling in London in the late seventies, he produced fringe theater before moving to the U.S. in 1979. Kolar was fluent in several languages — French, German, Czech, English and had a very good knowledge of Russian and some knowledge of Italian and Arabic, which helped him in his film career becoming experienced in foreign locations filming as well as in international co-productions/co- financing requirements and regulations.
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He also served as a Jury Member for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic) and the International Antalya Film Festival in Turkey.
Kolar is survived by his wife, Deborah Shaw Kolar, co-partner of entertainment industry public relations and marketing firm Kean & Kolar Communications, daughter Rachel McCord, grandson Mateus Kofi McCord, son Rob Kolar, a musician. A private family service is being planned.
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