POLISH FILM ACADEMY

Theatre and film actor, director and teacher. Born on July 3, 1928 in Łódź, died on November 20, 2008 in Warsaw. Associated with theatres in Olsztyn, Opole, Lublin, Łódź, and Warsaw. Founder – along with his wife Halina Machulska – of the Ochota Theatre in Warsaw, where organised a theatre group for children and young people. A graduate of the Łódź State Higher School of Theatre (1954) and director of the Warsaw Theatre Academy (1971), long-time (from 1974) lecturer at the Łódź Film School, dean of the Faculty of Acting (1982–1984, 1989–1996).
He made his cinema debut on a cameo role in Trzy opowieści [Three stories] by Ewa Poleska [later Petelska]. He played a more significant role several years later in Ostatni dzień lata/The Last Day of Summer. The film, which was an experiment by a group of friends led by Tadeusz Konwicki, became for him an opportunity to demonstrate a discrete, modern approach to acting, in which every gesture and gaze matters.
His physical appearance, charm and good manners made him ideal for roles of love interests, reflective, sometimes lost, often approaching reality with an ironic distance. One example was Ludwik in Sublokator/Tenant by Janusz Majewski, who had earlier cast Machulski in almost all his television films.
He was equally convincing as the gentle, almost naive in his idealism, Julian Ochocki in Lalka/The Doll by Wojciech Jerzy Has, the brave soldier in the earlier Orzeł [The Eagle] by Leonard Buczkowski, or Historia jednego myśliwca [The history of one fighter] by Hubert Drapella.
In 1963, Machulski made his debut as a theater director. In the mid-1970s, he mostly directed plays for theatre and television; he also managed the Ochota Theatre in Warsaw. He triumphantly returned to the big screen in the role of Kwinto in Vabank directed by his son, Juliusz Machulski, who cast him against his erstwhile image: instead of an open, warm man, we saw a silent, introverted safecracker-musician, steadfast in his adherence to his own code of principles. He reprised the role in the sequel Vabank II. He also became his son’s full-time actor, playing smaller roles (Kiler, Kiler 2), as well as larger ones (Vinci) in the vast majority of his films. One of the last roles he starred in was Michał Rogalski’s comedy thriller Ostatnia akcja/ The Last Action.
He enjoyed working on independent film projects, for which – as well as for his lifetime achievements – he was honoured with the Polish Independent Cinema Award “OFFskar,” which is now named after him. Among the awards and honours he received, there was the Golden Frog at the Camerimage Festival (2003).

Magda Sendecka