ACTORS

Wiesław Michnikowski

He is most famous for his performances in the Elder Gentlemen’s Cabaret. Some of the songs he performed together with Mieczysław Czechowicz are now Polish evergreens, covered by many other artists. He also starred in a feature sequel to the Cabaret Upał [Heat] (1964) directed...

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Leon Niemczyk

“I accept every part I am offered because I believe that you can do something good even with a minor, poorly written role. Moreover, there are no bad roles, there are only bad actors,” Niemczyk said in an interview for “Film” magazine (1985). The actor appeared in over 350...

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Jan Nowicki

“Freedom is our fundamental value, one every man should strive for. It is crucial to achieve the maximum freedom of choice in one's personal and professional life. I have always tried to be free, even if it meant losing some opportunities along the way – I am also referring...

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Daniel Olbrychski

He was born on February 27, 1945 in Łowicz. In 1971, he past his extramural acting exam at the State Theatre Academy in Warsaw. An Actor in several Warsaw theatres, including Powszechny and Narodowy. Winner of many prestigious awards, including the Zbigniew Cybulski Award...

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Kazimierz Opaliński

He never had any formal training, but thanks to his talent and hard work he was considered one of the best Polish actors. He worked with the greatest icons of theatre – Leon Schiller, Karol Frycz, Erwin Axer, Kazimierz Dejmek, as well as cinema – Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Munk, ...

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Jan Peszek

He has worked – as an actor, writer, and director – on the set of nearly eighty films, which has earned him about a hundred awards and distinctions.
Theatre and film actor. Born in 1944 in Szreńsk. Associated with several theatres, including Polski Theatre in Wrocław, the Nowy...

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Franciszek Pieczka

“When they start organising various events in your honour that means that people already see that you’re finished as an artist. And I think that octogenarians have a broader perspective. I no longer have to do anything, but I still can do everything,” he said in an interview...

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Wojciech Pszoniak

“Acting for me is what pen and ink wouldbe if I was a poet, or a brush, if I was a painter. It is my means to cope with the world and people. I'm not an actor from nine to five. At the moment, I am not playing any role, but I'm an actor. It's a way of processing reality, a...

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Jerzy Radziwiłowicz

“I have never had any problems with popularity because somehow few people recognise me. I do not even know if I should be annoyed about ir, or happy,” the actor said in the book Wszystko jest lekko dziwne [Everything is a little strange] (2012).
He was born on September 8, ...

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Anna Romantowska

She debuted in cinema of moral anxiety and afterwards played the dramatic role of Mira Szajnert – Antonina Dziwisz’s cellmate in Bugajski’s famous Przesłuchanie/Interrogation. Her specialty is not politics however, but psychology and her roles fail to be unambiguously...

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Anna Seniuk

Among dozens of characters created by her are country girls - amidst them the genius Handzia Kaziukowa in Leszczyński’s Konopielka, terrible wives as in Kondratiuk’s Niedziela Barabasza [Barabas’s Sunday] and attractive lovers like in Załuski’s Kardiogram [The Cardiogram]....

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Andrzej Seweryn

“This profession cannot be defined. Intellect does not guarantee success in acting. Often, on the contrary, it is an obstacle. It is a profession full of contradictions. Is it not a mystery that the audience goes silent when one actor enters the stage and does not even see...

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Jadwiga Smosarska

Her name alone still causes cinemaniacs’ heart rates to speed up even though most of her films no longer exist. Before the war, delighted audiences awarded her the title of ‘Queen of the Polish screen’ several times. She played over twenty roles in films of the best directors...

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Dorota Stalińska

Her first bigger role was in Agnieszka Holland’s Niedzielne dzieci/Sunday Children, but she shone brightly in the films of Barbara Sass, with whom she paired up in an extremely creative duo. Portraying a young journalist who will do anything to get what she wants in Bez...

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Grażyna Staniszewska

Her debut was in Antoni Bohdziewicz’s unsuccessful Szkice węglem/Charcoal Sketches, after which she showed her class and style playing Joczys’s widow in Kazimierz Kutz’s Krzyż Walecznych/Cross of Valour. In Popiół i diament/Ashes and Diamonds she sang the very sad Czerwone...

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Recommended video

  • Polish Cinema 1919-1929, prof. Tadeusz Lubelski
  • Polish Cinema 1945-1954, prof. Tadeusz Lubelski
  • History of the Polish film industry, Andrzej Bukowiecki
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