Roman Polanski

**Roman Polanski** (born **Raymond Roman Thierry Polanski**, 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish movie director, producer, writer and actor.  In 2003, he won the Academy Award for Best Director for his film, _The Pianist_.<sup>p148</sup><sup>p186</sup>

## Personal life

Polanski was born in Paris, France but his family moved back to Poland in 1937.<sup>p313</sup><sup>p250</sup> His parents were agnostics. Because the family was Jewish, they were persecuted by the Nazis in Poland and forced to live in a ghetto.<sup>p2/4</sup> Polanski's mother died at Auschwitz.<sup>p2</sup> He later went to film school at Lodz  and graduated in 1959. Polanski won many awards for his short movies and went on to make full-length movies in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Polanski's first marriage was to actress Barbara Lass in 1959; they divorced in 1961.

While filming the movie _Fearless Vampire Killers_ he met an actress named Sharon Tate.<sup>p58/9</sup> Polanski married her in 1968.<sup>p75/6</sup> In August 1969, Polanski was in London, and Tate was pregnant. Tate and some of their friends were murdered in Los Angeles, California, by people who followed Charles Manson.

Polanski dated Nastassja Kinski who later starred in his film _Tess_.
Polanski's third and current wife is actress Emmanuelle Seigner, who is the mother of his daughter and son.

## Arrest

In 1977, Polanski got in trouble with the law in California when he was caught having sex with a 13-year-old girl called Samantha Gailey (now Geimer). Polanski went to France. In the 1990s, Polanski paid an undisclosed sum of money to the woman, in exchange for her dropping the charges. He was arrested in Switzerland in September 2009. He was arrested at the request of the United States, so Switzerland could extradite him to the United States. On July 12, 2010, the Swiss freed Polanski, and decided not to extradite him to Los Angeles. The Swiss Justice Ministry did not believe the legal strength of the United States extradition request. According to the press release, the Swiss authorities asked for copies of the proceedings that would justify the extradition.
- _"The request (..) was rejected by the US Justice Department on 13 May 2010. In the circumstances, it was not possible to exclude with the necessary certainty that Roman Polanski had not already served the sentence imposed at the time and as a result, the extradition request was seriously flawed. Given the persistent doubts as to the precise facts of the case, the request had to be rejected."_

Polanski is still a fugitive (wanted by the police) in America. However, Geimer has said "I would love to see him resolve it, the sooner, the better...if we could just put this to rest, that would be great".<sup>p180</sup> Polanski apologized to Geimer in a film documentary. Bernard Kouchner, a French public official, has denounced the USA's extradition request as "sinister" because it came so long after the event.

## Movies

- _Knife in the Water_ (1962) <sup>p21</sup>
- _Repulsion_ (1965) <sup>p40</sup>
- _Cul-de-Sac_ (1966).<sup>p53</sup>
- _The Fearless Vampire Killers_ (1967).<sup>p58/62</sup>
- _Rosemary's Baby_ (1968).<sup>p64</sup>
- _Macbeth_ (1971).
- _What?_ (1973)  .
- _Pirates_ (1986).<sup>p117/8</sup>
- _Frantic_ (1988) <sup>p119</sup>
- _Bitter Moon_ (1992 ).<sup>p121/2</sup>
- _Death and the Maiden_ (1994) <sup>p125/6</sup>
- _The Ninth Gate_ (1999).<sup>p131/4</sup>
- _The Pianist_ (2002) <sup>p139</sup>
- _Oliver Twist_ (2005).<sup>p151/6</sup>
- _The Ghost Writer_ (2010)
- _Carnage_ (2011).
- _Venus in Fur_ (2013)
- _Based on a True Story (2017)_
- _An Officer and a Spy (2019)_

## Documentary films

In 2008, the documentary film by Marina Zenovich, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, was released in Europe and the United States where it won numerous awards.

In October 2017, Polanski returned to Poland to appear in a documentary about his childhood during the Holocaust and after the war, with his longtime friend, the photographer Ryszard Horowitz. They visited Krakow and the village, where Polanski was in hiding after fleeing the ghetto. The film is produced and directed by Mateusz Kudla and Anna Kokoszka-Romer.

## Infobox (person)

- **image**: Roman Polanski 2011.jpg
- **caption**: Polanski in 2011
- **birth place**: Paris, France
- **birth name**: Raymond Roman Thierry Polański
- **spouse**: Barbara Kwiatkowska-Lass, Barbara Lass (m. 1959–1962, divorced)
Sharon Tate (m. 1968–1969, her death)
Emmanuelle Seigner (m. 1989—present)
- **years active**: 1953–present
- **alma mater**: National Film School in Łódź
- **children**: 3