I became the mascot of the illegal money changers´ little world
The actor Roman Skamene was born on October 2, 1954 in Planá near Mariánské Lázně. He started working in films at the age of twelve, and thanks to his small stature, he was able to play children‘s roles for a long time. In 1971, he became visible thanks to the fairy tale Princ a chuďas, but a major turning point in his career was Vít Olmer‘s film Bony a Klid (1987), which drew attention to the existence of money changers and the gray economy in socialist Czechoslovakia. Thanks to the film, Roman Skamene himself was very popular among the money changers and came into contact with them even in the early 1990s, when he established a friendship with the controversial businessman Ivan Jonák. An attempt to make his own business and the collapse of his restaurant brought him into great debt, he was persecuted by moneylenders and got into an almost hopeless situation. His later acting career was marked by alcohol problems. He still struggles with the consequences of debt, but he already lives a peaceful life, appearing in smaller roles in television series.