Kulka – with over 50 movies, countless stage performances, TV shows and prominent dubbing roles to his name – has received every possible national artistic award possible during his fifty-year career (he first appeared on our screens as a child). Perhaps most importantly, in 2006 he was induced as an eternal “Company of Immortals” member – a distinction awarded to the best actors by a jury of their peers.
In April 2016 – when it is safe to say he was at the peak of his career – he suffered a severe stroke necessitating life-saving cranial surgery. Physically, he made an unexpectedly quick recovery but his speech center was also affected and he had to learn to speak again – a work still in progress.
“I am a prisoner in my own consciousness,” he said in a recent interview. “My intellect and spirit remain the same, but I struggle to put words to it”.
To give you a measure of his loss, below is Kulka performing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah just months before his stroke:
