Barbara Kwiatkowska-Lass (1 June 1940 – 6 March 1995) was a Polish actress.

Early life and career

Barbara Kwiatkowska was born in Patrowo, a village near

Gostynin Gostynin is a town in central Poland with 19,414 inhabitants (2004). It is situated in the Masovian Voivodship since 1999 and was previously in the Płock Voivodship from 1975 to 1998. It is the capital of Gostynin County. History Gostynin h ...

in central Poland, then under

German-occupied Poland German-occupied Poland during World War II consisted of two major parts with different types of administration. The Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II—nearly a quarter of the ...

, which the Nazis had renamed Gasten in 1939 through 1941 (at time of her birth). Then changed to Walrode from June 1941 until the end of the war. Although she received ballet and dance education, she eventually took up an acting career. After her debut role in Tadeusz Chmielewski's comedy '' Ewa chce spać'' (1957) she gained wider popularity in Poland. The role had been offered to her after she took the first place in a contest organized by a popular Polish cinema magazine. In 1959 she left Poland for the West and soon starred in a few major films like ''La millième fenêtre'' (with

Jean-Louis Trintignant Jean-Louis Xavier Trintignant (; 11 December 1930 – 17 June 2022) was a French actor. He made his theatrical debut in 1951, and went on to be regarded as one of the best French dramatic actors of the post-war era. He starred in many classic fi ...

) and ''

The Joy of Living ''The Joy of Living'' ( it, Che gioia vivere, french: Quelle joie de vivre) is a 1961 Italian-French comedy film directed by René Clément. It was entered into the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. Plot The story is set in Rome, in the year 1921. Ul ...

'' (with Alain Delon). She played roles in several Italian, French and German films such as

Krzysztof Zanussi Krzysztof Pius Zanussi (born 17 June 1939) is a Polish film and theatre director, producer and screenwriter. He is a professor of European film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland where he conducts a summer workshop. He is ...

's ' (1984) and in ' (1981).

Personal life

She married film director

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a ( né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, tw ...

in 1959; they divorced in 1962. The following year she met

Karlheinz Böhm Karlheinz Böhm (16 March 1928 – 29 May 2014) was an Austrian-German actor and philanthropist. He took part in 45 films and became well known in Austria and Germany for his role as Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in the Sissi film trilogy a ...

on the set of the movie ' (''Rififi à Tokyo'', 1963) in Tokyo; the couple later married, their daughter is actress

Katharina Böhm Katharina Böhm (born 20 November 1964) is a Swiss-born Austrian actress. Between 1999 and 2002 she played the role of Livia Burlando in the Italian TV series ''Il commissario Montalbano'', based on the character Salvo Montalbano from the novels ...

. Kwiatkowska-Lass divorced Böhm in 1980, and married Polish jazz musician Leszek Żądło, with whom she lived until her death.

Politics

Kwiatkowska was opposed to the Communist regime in Poland and cooperated with the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

-controlled Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which transmitted anti-communist propaganda, information and programmes free from censorship to Poland.

Death

On 6 March 1995, Kwiatkowska-Lass collapsed and died from a brain hemorrhage aged 54, in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. She was interred in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Rakowicki Cemetery Rakowicki Cemetery (English: ; pl, Cmentarz Rakowicki) is a historic necropolis and a cultural heritage monument located on 26 Rakowicka Street in the centre of Kraków, Poland. It lies within the Administrative District No. 1 ''Stare Miasto'' ...

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kwiatkowska-Lass, Barbara Burials at Rakowicki Cemetery Polish film actresses Polish television actresses Actresses from Kraków Polish anti-communists 1940 births 1995 deaths 20th-century Polish actresses