Bruno O'Ya

Birthday: 1933-02-12
Deathday: 2002-10-09
Birthplace: Tallinn, Harju County, Estonia
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

Bruno O'Ya (born Bruno Oja; February 12, 1933 – October 9, 2002) was an Estonian-Polish actor. In 1974 he starred in the Academy Award-nominated film The Deluge under Jerzy Hoffman. He also appeared in the 1978 film Centaurs. He released a folk album with 12 songs in 1973.

Born on February 12, 1933, in Tallinn, O'Ya was born to Verner and Hilda Oja; his brother was Kenno Oja. He was married four times, and has a daughter, Dominika. O'Ya studied piano with the Estonian composer Eugen Kapp. He was part of a pop music group in Tartu in 1951 and the Riga Teacher's House dance orchestra from 1956–1964. From the late the 1960s, he mainly lived and worked in Wrocław, Poland, but did not renounce his Soviet citizenship, as that was how he was able to visit Estonia. In 1967, he changed his Estonian surname to a foreign one, henceforth writing the surname with a y and adding an apostrophe after the first letter in order to simplify foreign contact.

After Estonia regained its independence, O'Ya returned to Estonia, where he supervised a youth theater. On the initiative of Foreign Minister Trivim Velliste, O'Ya became the cultural attaché and honorary consul of the Republic of Estonia in Poland. In 1998 he suffered a stroke.

Credits

	Year	Title	Character
	1988-12-05	Mr. Blot in Space
	1987-02-20	Rykowisko	senator Mickey Caposta
	1986-09-15	Na całość	Skandynaw
	1985-03-04	Przyśpieszenie	Father Christmas
	1984-09-03	Wedle wyroków twoich...	chłop Pietrek
	1983-12-26	Heads Full of Stars	Soviet Officer
	1983-11-28	Ostrze na ostrze	Jacek Dydyński
	1982-07-23	The Last One Will Go to Hell	pasovský fendrich Hoff
	1981-08-28	Tender Spots	Oficer
	1979-01-29	The Centaurs	Nilson
	1978-01-20	An Unknown Friend	Bruno Linden
	1976-03-09	Kazimierz Wielki	Spytek from Melsztyn
	1975-01-03	The Weddings of Ioan Assen	Knyaz Yuriy
	1974-09-02	The Deluge	Józwa Butrym
	1973-06-19	Possession	Apartment Owner
	1973-02-14	Copernicus	Color Bearer (uncredited)
	1972-03-15	Black Rusks
	1972-01-03	Tauriņdeja	Harijs Maurs
	1971-10-08	Aktorka	Kasjo
	1971-07-17	Das letzte Wort
	1970-07-03	Fatal Error	Hank Jackson
	1969-12-23	The Red Tent	Norwegian Radio Operator (uncredited)
	1968-05-22	Operation 'Trust'	Birk
	1968-04-14	Wolves' Echoes	Piotr Słotwina
	1968-03-01	When Love Was a Crime	Denis Lenoir
	1966-10-31	On the Same Planet
	1966-04-18	Nobody Wanted to Die	Bronius
	1965-11-21	Time, Forward!	Thomas Bixby
	1965-09-20	Remember, Kaspar!
	1965-03-21	Early in the Morning	певец в ресторане
	1965-01-01	The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin	Янсен, капитан яхты "Аризона"
	1964-12-22	The Lark	Obersturmbannfuhrer
	1964-06-08	A Shot in the Fog	Бинкль - атташе
	1963-03-01	Cottage in the Dunes
	1963-01-01	General and Daisies	Vladec Lekhovski
	1962-03-15	49 Days