Actors - Roman Polański

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	Actors - Roman Polański

Roman Polański (born August 18, 1933) is a Franco-Polish film director and actor. A celebrated Hollywood director of such films as Rosemary's Baby
(1968) and Chinatown
(1974), he is also known for his tumultuous personal life. His wife, actress Sharon Tate, was murdered by the Manson Family in 1969 and he fled to Europe following a 1978 guilty plea to statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. Unwilling to return to the United States and face arrest, he has continued to direct films in Europe, including Frantic (1988), the Academy Award-winning The Pianist
(2002), and Oliver Twist
(2005).

Biography

Early life

Polański was born in Paris, France as Rajmund Roman Liebling to Ryszard Polański (aka Ryszard Liebling), a Polish Jew, and Bula Polanska (née Katz), who was born in Russia to a Jewish father and Roman Catholic mother.

Because of growing anti-semitism, the family moved back to Poland in 1937. Poland was occupied by German and Soviet troops in 1939.

On November 13, 1939, Kraków became the seat of office of Hans Frank. The General Government surrounded parts of the Polish state, which had not been annexed to the Germany. The declared goal of the German occupiers was to make the General Government judenfrei, and to expel the Poles, that Germans could settle there.

The Polański family was therefore the target of Nazi persecution and was forced into the Kraków Ghetto, along with millions of other Polish Jews. Roman Polański's mother subsequently died in Auschwitz concentration camp; his father barely survived the Austrian concentration camp Mauthausen-Gusen. Polański himself escaped the Kraków Ghetto, and survived the war with the help of a Polish farmer, where he had to sleep in a cow stall. He was informed of his mother's death from his sister after the war.

He was educated at the film school in Łódź, Poland, from which he graduated in 1959. Polański speaks six languages: Polish, Russian, English, French, Spanish, and Italian.

Several short films made during the study gained considerable recognition. His first major film Knife in the Water
(1962) was the first significant Polish film after the war that was not associated with the war theme. It was Polański's first nomination for the Oscar.

Polański then made films in Britain; Repulsion
(1965), a disturbing tale of madness and alienation; Cul-de-Sac
(1966) is similar in tone to the plays of Samuel Beckett, telling the story of a couple living on a remote island (Donald Pleasence and Françoise Dorleac) who are visited by two gangsters (Lionel Stander and Jack MacGowran).

The Fearless Vampire Killers
(1967) is the American title for Dance of the Vampires, an unusual combination of comedy and horror. Polański's visuals give the film the feeling of a fairy tale, and at the same time he continues to explore the darker side of human relationships. The director was not happy with the American version of the film, which was re-cut in addition to having its title changed.

Relationship with Sharon Tate

Polański met rising star Sharon Tate while filming The Fearless Vampire Killers and during their time together doing the film they began dating. In 1968 Polański went to Hollywood, where his reputation was enhanced by the success of the sophisticated psychological thriller Rosemary's Baby
(1968), based on Ira Levin's book of the same name, about a woman (Mia Farrow) who discovers she is pregnant with Satan's baby. On January 25, 1968, he married Tate in London, England.

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