# 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 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) and The Joy of Living (with Alain Delon). She played roles in several Italian, French and German films such as Krzysztof Zanussi's Bluebeard [pl] (1984) and in Sting in the Flesh [de] (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 anioły Credited as Barbara Kwiatkowska |
| 1960 | Tysiąc talarów | Kasia Wydech | |
| 1960 | Zezowate szczeście | Jola Wrona-Wronska | Alternative title: Bad Luck Credited 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 | Sting in the Flesh [de] | Ines | |
| 1986 | Rosa Luxemburg | Rosa's mother | |
| 1986 | Das Schweigen des Dichters | Janina | |
| Television ||||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1970 | Hauser's Memory | Angelika | TV movie |
| 1972 | Doppelspiel in Paris | Renée Borni, seine Geliebte | TV movie |
| 1984 | Bluebeard [pl] | Rosalinde | TV movie |
| 1990 | Wahnsinnsehe | Herta | TV movie |
| 1991 | Moskau - Petuschki | Fürstin | TV movie, (final film role) |