Barbara Kwiatkowska-Lass

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 in central Poland, then under German-occupied Poland, which the Germans 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) and The Joy of Living (with Alain Delon). She played roles in several Italian, French and German films such as Krzysztof Zanussi's (1984) and in (1981).

Personal life She married film director Roman Polanski in 1959; they divorced in 1962. The following year she met Karlheinz Böhm in Tokyo on the set of the film Rififi in Tokyo (1963); the couple later married, their daughter is actress Katharina Böhm. 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-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. She was interred in Kraków's Rakowicki Cemetery.

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1958 Ewa chce spać Ewa Bonecka Credited as Barbara Kwiatkowska 1958 Żołnierz królowej Madagaskaru Sabinka Lemiecka 1958 Pan Anatol szuka miliona Iwona Slowikowska 1959 When Angels Fall Short, Alternative title: Gdy spadają aniołyCredited as Barbara Kwiatkowska 1960 Tysiąc talarów Kasia Wydech 1960 Zezowate szczeście Jola Wrona-Wronska Alternative title: Bad LuckCredited as Barbara Kwiatkowska 1960 La 1000eme fenêtre Ania 1961 Ostroznie, Yeti! Bride 1961 Che gioia vivere Franca Fossati Alternative title: The Joy of Living 1961 Lycanthropus Priscilla Alternative title: Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory 1962 L'Amour à vingt ans Basia Alternative title: Love at Twenty(segment "Warszawa") 1963 Vice and Virtue Prisoner 1963 Rififi in Tokyo Françoise Merigne Alternative title: Rififi in Tokyo 1965 Serenade für zwei Spione Tamara Alternative title: Serenade for Two Spies 1967 Jowita Agnieszka "Jowita" Credited as Barbara Kwiatkowska 1970 Der Pfarrer von St. Pauli Dagmar Alternative title: The Priest of St. Pauli 1974 Effi Briest Polnische Köchin 1974 Jak to sie robi Holiday-Maker Alternative title: How It's Done 1981 Ines 1986 Rosa Luxemburg Rosa's mother 1986 The Silence of the Poet Janina Television Year Title Role Notes 1970 Hauser's Memory Angelika TV movie 1972 Doppelspiel in Paris Renée Borni, seine Geliebte TV movie 1984 Rosalinde TV movie 1990 Wahnsinnsehe Herta TV movie 1991 Moskau - Petuschki Fürstin TV movie, (final film role)