Josef Kolb (30 May 1901 - 21 November 1982) came from Zlín, where, like many of his compatriots and peers, he found employment with the Bat'a company. In 1941, he was sent by Bata with other Zlín employees to the new concern's factory in Zruč nad Sázavou - Bata, where he was also actively involved in cultural and social life, especially as a member of an amateur ensemble. According to the memoirs, Kolb always presented himself in public in a well-fitting suit and clean shoes, exactly in the style of Bata's Zlín.

Kolb's good looks and undeniable acting talent were noticed by director Miloš Forman, who cast him in one of the unmissable supporting roles in the feature film Love of a Single Maid (1965). Forman's penchant for casting non-actors made Josef Kolb a star of the screen among non-actors. This was followed by Kolb's involvement in Forman's Hoří, má panenko (1967), Josef Papoušek's Nejkrásnější věk (1968) and Hogo fogo Homolka ( 1970), and Václav Vorlíček's The Girl on the Broom ( 1971). Kolb's last role was in the psychological film Návraty / The Returns ( 1972) directed by Václav Matějka.

Miloš Forman described Josef Kolb as a personality with a natural way of acting in front of the camera. Josef Kolb spent the end of his long life in a retirement home in Kutná Hora, where he died at the age of eighty-one. Kolb's son Miloš Kolb (25 December 1925 - 20 May 2003), an athlete of TJ Jiskra Zruč nad Sázavou and a well-known hardy runner, in whose honour the ten-kilometre Christmas run is regularly held, also linked his professional career with Kolb's workplace in Zruč.

https://www.csfd.cz/tvurce/26489-josef-kolb/prehled/