Who Is Miodrag Petrović Čkalja

Miodrag Petrović Čkalja (Kruševac, April 1, 1924 – Belgrade, October 20, 2003) was a Serbian and Yugoslav actor and one of the most popular comedians in the history of the former SFRY. He was born on April Fools’ Day, and he devoted his entire life to making people laugh.

His greatest fame came from the television screen. He became famous as the cook Jordan in “Servisna stanica”, the first series produced by Television Belgrade, and he is unforgettable as Živadin Jarić Jare in the cult series “Kamiondžije”. For much of his career he formed a pair with his colleague Milosav Mija Aleksić, while in “Kamiondžije” he created an inimitable duo with Pavle Vuisić.

According to the weekly “Vreme”, he made more than 25 films and 32 comedy television series. For this reason, many critics say that he marked an entire era of local entertainment.

Early Life and Childhood

Miodrag Petrović was born on April 1, 1924, in Kruševac. He was the fourth child in the family, and his parents were his father Čedomir and his mother Hristina, known as Tina. The family lived on Balšićeva Street in Kruševac.

Laughter was a part of his life from the earliest age. As he himself recalled, as a boy he built a theater behind the house in Kruševac. With his friends he performed what they were learning at school, such as scenes about the Battle of Kosovo.

He received the nickname by which the public remembered him while still a child. According to his own account, on a fishing trip with school friends he asked to be handed a rod, or “čaklja”, but instead of that word he said “Čkalja”. His friend Jeftić began to call him that, and the other children accepted the nickname. As the story goes, he was thin and dry like a branch.

A decisive influence was his teacher Bora Mihajlović. He was the manager of a semi-professional theater in Kruševac, as well as Čkalja’s homeroom teacher and German teacher. As soon as he noticed the boy’s talent, he gave him ever bigger roles.

Education

He finished gymnasium in his hometown of Kruševac. There, in the drama section, he began to act. A well-known photograph from 1943, taken during the play “Đido”, shows him with the actress Radmila Savićević, also a native of Kruševac, whom audiences would come to love as Mother Vuka.

After gymnasium he went to Belgrade and enrolled in veterinary studies. As he later explained, in the third year he did not have enough money for rent and food, because his family could not support him. At that time Radio Belgrade was looking for actors for its Drama Studio. He applied, was accepted, and left the faculty, because rehearsals meant he could no longer attend practical classes.

According to the daily “Danas”, he was also a member of the cultural society “Ivo Lola Ribar” during that period. In this way, acting went from a childhood hobby to his profession.

Start of Career

He began his professional acting career in 1946 as a member of the Drama Studio of Radio Belgrade. Radio opened the door to a wider audience, and he gained his first real popularity as a participant in the show “Veselo veče”.

The Humorous Theater

From 1951 to 1977 he was a member of the Humorous Theater in Belgrade. On stage he showed great talent for comedy, especially in the works of Branislav Nušić, his favorite writer. He also performed in plays by the French author Georges Feydeau.

The writer Ivan Ivanji, then the artistic director of the theater, explained to “Vreme” that in the early 1960s the Humorous Theater was merged with the Belgrade Drama Theater. This created a theater that was not devoted only to laughter. Čkalja wanted to take advantage of that, because he was somewhat envious of his partner Mija Aleksić, who was also proving himself in the classical repertoire.

An Attempt at a Classical Role

Once he asked to play in a classical piece. Together with Ivanji he chose “The Love of Don Perlimplín” by the Spanish writer Federico García Lorca. A mask of a Spanish hidalgo was made for him. However, when he first appeared on stage, someone in the audience recognized him and shouted “Čkalja!”, and laughter filled the hall. The tragic scene fell apart, and the play was taken off the repertoire. Ivanji therefore concluded that Čkalja, although an exceptional actor, was condemned to comedy after his first fame.

Rise to Popularity

The real turning point in his career was brought by the television screen. In 1959 “Servisna stanica” began, the first series of Television Belgrade, and Čkalja played the cook Jordan in it. Alongside him performed Milosav Mija Aleksić in the role of acting manager Raka.

The series was very well received, and it was followed by the shooting of as many as three films in which the two comedians competed as acting manager Raka and the cook Jordan. These are “Sreća u torbi”, “Nema malih bogova” and “Servisna stanica”.

Television Series

From 1959 until the 1980s, Čkalja appeared in many television comedy series. Among them are “Dežurna ulica”, “Spavajte mirno”, “Sačulatac”, “Crni sneg”, “Ljudi i papagaji”, “Ljubav na seoski način”, “Kamiondžije” and “Vruć vetar”. The singer Silvana Armenulić also guest-starred in the series “Ljubav na seoski način”.

He collaborated most often with Mija Aleksić. Still, their relationship was not a competition but a complement, because two different comic styles worked together as a whole.

Kamiondžije and Paja i Jare

Perhaps Čkalja’s best-known role was Živadin Jarić Jare in the series “Kamiondžije”. The script was written by Gordan Mihić, and it was directed by Milo Đukanović. The series was produced by Radio-Television Belgrade, had ten episodes of 52 minutes each, and aired in the winter of 1973. Sources differ on the exact date of the first episode, as both January 7 and January 13, 1973 are mentioned.

At the center of the story are the truck drivers Paja Čutura and Jare, played by Pavle Vuisić and Čkalja. The two of them try, mostly unsuccessfully, to start their own business. Paja was a rough character, with few movements and little facial expression, but wise in a folksy way. Jare was his complete opposite, and that very difference was the source of the humor.

Slavka Jerinić, Borivoje Jovanović and Radmila Savićević also appeared in the series. The episode in which the heroes go back to school is famous, and Jare’s answer “Bune protiv dahija” in a history class became part of popular memory.

Sequels and the Film

The success of the series led to film sequels. In the same year, 1973, the film “Paja i Jare” was made, and later “Kamiondžije 2” (1983) and “Kamiondžije opet voze” (1984). “Danas” described the series as one of the last projects shot in black and white, in the year when color appeared on domestic television.

Greatest Successes

Čkalja’s most significant roles were in the series “Servisna stanica” (1959), “Ljubav na seoski način” (1970), “Kamiondžije” (1972–1973), “Vruć vetar” (1980) and “Kamiondžije 2” (1983). Among films, the most notable are “Orlovi rano lete” (1966), “Bog je umro uzalud” (1969), “Paja i Jare” (1973), “Avanture Borivoja Šurdilovića” (1980) and “Kamiondžije opet voze” (1984).

Selected Films

• “Orlovi rano lete” (1966), directed by Soja Jovanović
• “Zlatna praćka” (1967)
• “Bog je umro uzalud” (1969)
• “Silom otac” (1969)
• “Lepa parada” (1970)
• “Biciklisti” (1970)
• “Paja i Jare” (1973)
• “Avanture Borivoja Šurdilovića” (1980)
• “Kamiondžije opet voze” (1984)
• “Ruski car” (1993)

Sources differ on the number of films. While “Vreme” states that he made more than 25 films and 32 comedy series, the English Wikipedia mentions around 20 films. For that reason, the framework used here is that he played a large number of roles in film and television.

He held the status of a freelance artist from 1976, while his membership in the Humorous Theater is listed until 1977. Čkalja gradually withdrew from the stage in the late 1980s.

Private Life

Čkalja married Dragica, who, according to media reports, devoted her whole life to the family. In her words, he began visiting her every day, often with a bouquet of flowers, and after three months he gave her a ring that he had bought for fifty dinars. She later said that they lived like any other family and that at home her husband was an ordinary husband and father.

Family stories tell us that he liked to prepare popara with cheese, his favorite dish. Sometimes, together with his son, he would put on a small theater program to entertain his wife.

They had a son, Čedomir Petrović (Belgrade, January 2, 1949), an actor, director and writer. Čedomir played his first role in 1964 in the play “Put oko sveta”, alongside his father. He died in 2025, at the age of 76. Čedomir’s daughter is the actress Jovana Petrović, Čkalja’s granddaughter.

According to the writer Ivan Ivanji, in private Čkalja was a calm, kind and quiet man, in great contrast to his stage persona.

Final Years and Death

At the end of the 1980s he withdrew from public life and spent his last years quietly. His last public appearance was in 2000, during the DOS campaign before the change of government.

The media often wrote about his modest life. In a speech after one major award, when he was 76, he said that he needed nothing and that he had lived modestly. He thanked the manager of his supermarket, his neighbor and the postman who brought him his pension. His granddaughter Jovana Petrović later pointed out that some texts took his sense of humor literally, and that her grandfather knew how to joke at his own expense.

Čkalja died in the evening of October 20, 2003, in Belgrade, in his 80th year. The cause of death is not publicly known. He was buried at the New Cemetery in Belgrade. As reported, he did not want to be buried in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens, but among ordinary people and within his family circle.

Interesting Facts

• He was born on April 1, on World Joke Day.
• The nickname “Čkalja” came from the mispronounced word “čaklja”, which in speech means a stick.
• Before acting he studied veterinary medicine in Belgrade, but he left his studies in the third year.
• He said that comedy is not easy to play, because he changed his shirt after every act.
• He believed that a comedian is born and that comedy cannot be learned.
• In one classical drama the audience burst out laughing as soon as they saw him, so the play was taken off the repertoire.

Awards and Recognition

According to media reports, near the end of his life Čkalja received a major lifetime achievement award, but the name of that award is not unambiguously confirmed in the available sources. For that reason, we do not state it as a fact in this text.

The posthumous honors are therefore more significant. In 2005 a statue was placed in front of his birth house in Kruševac, and in 2006 a street in Zvezdara in Belgrade was given his name. A postage stamp with his image was issued in 2007.

In 2018 a memorial plaque was placed in Belgrade, and in 2019 a memorial bust was unveiled in Kruševac in front of the Cultural Center and the Kruševac Theater. The festival “Dani komedije” in Jagodina awards the “Miodrag Petrović Čkalja” prize for the funniest play as chosen by the audience.

Legacy and Influence

Čkalja’s legacy is still present today. His lines have been quoted for decades, and the series in which he starred are rerun and watched by new generations. As “Vreme” wrote, the history of television in this region cannot be imagined without him.

His humor was not without bitterness. Stories about the little man, however funny, had a serious note. For that reason both critics and audiences valued him as an actor who never abused his popularity.

On the occasion of the centenary of his birth, in 2024, the Yugoslav Film Archive organized the exhibition “Victory of Smiles”, dedicated to his life and work.