The Romanian who “saved” Florin Piersic in Mărgelatu’ and revolutionized the world stunt: Szobi Cseh and life as an adventure VIDEO

One of Romania’s most famous stuntmen was also the one who “saved” Florin Piersic during the filming of Mărgelatu. Find out impressive details about the career of the man known as Szobi Cseh.

Szabolcs Cseh, or as he was known around the world, Szobi, was a stuntman, artist, university professor, but also had a great love for children. The former stuntman was born on 11 December 1942 in Miercurea Ciuc, coming from a Szekler family.

He had a special passion for things since his university days, and was employed by the State Circus in Bucharest as a member of the “Ganea” troupe, where he worked as a trapeze flyer. While in his third year of university, he was cast as a stuntman in the film “Dacii”, directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu.

A year later, he also starred in “Shots on a Portable”, “Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn” and “Galant Parties”. Between 1967 and 1980, he became the first method and wrestling master in Romania, at the Bucharest Film Studio, and later at the Romania Film Centre – Film Production Centre.

He collaborated on all the films made in the film studios containing action and fight scenes, performing many difficult stunts, some of them world premieres. In 1967, he set up a team of professional stuntmen in Romania, the only one of its kind in the country, which lasted until 1987.

Throughout his career, he has gathered 150 productions in his palmares, being feature films or TV movies, of which 25 were productions in other countries such as Germany, France or the United States of America, being the one who conceived and directed the action-fight sequences, conceived or executed the stunts, or even interpreted important roles in films.

Since 1974, he has collaborated on 38 films as director of specific sequences, and over the years has directed more than 70 stunt and entertainment shows, both at home and abroad. He founded the first Association of Professional Stuntmen in Romania on 8 January 1990, an institution he headed for several years.

Who saved Florin Piersic in Mărgelatu

After 1989, he rarely appears in films blaming both corruption and the fact that the pay for stuntmen is very low. Between 1999-2002 Szobi Cseh collaborated in the filming of action sequences in more than 10 foreign films, including “Amen” directed by Costa Gavras.

In his career as a teacher he has not let himself down either, conducting several scientific studies and university courses both theoretical and practical on the actor’s movement, its psychometric components, stage combat and the making of action sequences.

He has also contributed to the training of several generations of actors, theatre and film directors and film and television operators. The former stuntman also worked as a teacher at the University of Music “Ciprian Porumbescu”.

Since 2005, he has dedicated a large part of his time to the social program “Gladiator”, a program for poor children, aimed at preventing and combating juvenile delinquency. Three years later, Szobi Cseh also runs a programme for physically and mentally disabled children. Both programmes he created have been very successful over the years.

The stuntman was also the one who invented several techniques or which led to the development of methodologies in his field, both at home and abroad. His most famous stunts were those performed as Buză de Iepure in the films with Florin Piersic.

Some of these were considered world premieres, such as the horse jump through the window, the horse fall, the horse and rider roll down the mountainside from a height of 70 m. In 1985, Szobi Cseh was mentioned by the German magazine “Bunte” as the best stuntman on the continent.

He dies in 2014 at the age of 72 at the Fundeni Clinical Institute, having been diagnosed for several years with a rare form of cancer. Csobi dedicated much of his life to his career and humanitarian projects.