Zbigniew Cybulski
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
actor, one of the best-known and most popular personalities of the post-World War II history of Poland.
Life
Zbigniew Cybulski was born November 3, 1927 in a small village of Kniaże near StanisławówIvano-Frankivsk
Ivano-Frankivsk is a historic city located in the western Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast, municipality....
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(now a part of Sniatyn Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. As is the case with most other oblasts of Ukraine this region has the same name as its administrative center – which was renamed by the Soviets after the Ukrainian writer, nationalist...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
). After World War II he joined the Theatre Academy
Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts
Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts , located in Kraków, Poland, was founded in 1946 by a well-known Polish actor, Juliusz Osterwa, who took the initial steps leading to the establishment of the Academy through the amalgamation of three local studios, the Theatre Actors' Studio at...
in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
. He graduated in 1953 and moved to Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, where he made his stage debut in Leon Schiller
Leon Schiller
Leon Schiller de Schildenfeld was a Polish theater and film director, critic and theoretician. He was also a composer and wrote theater and radio screenplays....
's Wybrzeże Theatre. Also, with his friend Bogumił Kobiela, Cybulski founded a famous student theatre Bim-Bom. In early 1960s, Cybulski moved to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, where he joined the Wagabunda experimental theatre. He also appeared on stage of the Ateneum theatre, one of the most modern and least conservative Warsaw-based theatres of the epoch.
However, Cybulski is best remembered as a screen actor. He first appeared in a 1954 film Kariera as one of the extras. His first major role came in 1958, when he played in Kazimierz Kutz
Kazimierz Kutz
Kazimierz Julian Kutz is a Polish film director, author, journalist and politician, one of the representatives of the Polish Film School and a deputy speaker of the Senate of Poland.- Biography :...
's Krzyż Walecznych. The same year he also appeared as one of the main characters in Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...
's Ashes and Diamonds
Ashes and Diamonds (film)
Ashes and Diamonds is a 1958 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on the 1948 novel by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski...
and Aleksander Ford
Aleksander Ford
Aleksander Ford born Mosze Lifszyc was a Polish film director; and head of the Polish People's Army Film Crew in the Soviet Union. Ford became director of the nationalized "Film Polski" company at the end of World War II...
's The Eighth Day of the Week based on a short story by Marek Hłasko. Since then, Cybulski was seen as one of the most notable actors of the Polish Film School
Polish Film School
Polish Film School refers to an informal group of Polish film directors and screenplay writers active between 1955 and approximately 1963.The group was under heavy influence of Italian neorealists. It took advantage of the liberal changes in Poland after the 1956 to portray the complexity of...
and one of the "young and wrathful", as his generation of actors were called at the time.
His most famous films, apart from Ashes and Diamonds, include Wojciech Has
Wojciech Has
Wojciech Jerzy Has was a Polish film director, screenwriter and film producer.-Early Life & Studies:...
' The Saragossa Manuscript
The Saragossa Manuscript (film)
The Saragossa Manuscript is a 1965 Polish film directed by Wojciech Has, based on the 1815 novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki. Set primarily in Spain, it tells a frame story containing gothic, picaresque and erotic elements...
. He also appeared in numerous television plays, including ones based on works by Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
, Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
and Jerzy Andrzejewski
Jerzy Andrzejewski
Jerzy Andrzejewski was a prolific Polish author. His novels, Ashes and Diamonds , and Holy Week , have been made into film adaptations by the Oscar-winning Polish director Andrzej Wajda...
.
Cybulski died in an accident at a Wrocław railway train station on January 8, 1967, on his way from the film set. As he jumped for the already speeding train (as he had often done), he slipped on the steps, fell under the train, and was run over. Before the accident he said goodbye to Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
, personally a friend of his, who was one of that train passengers. He was buried in Katowice
Katowice
Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about north of the Silesian Beskids and about southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2...
.
Heritage
Cybulski remains a legend of the Polish cinema. No doubt this is partly due to his premature death. His style of acting was revolutionary at the time as was his image (leather clothes and big sunglasses). He was often referred to as "the Polish James DeanJames Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
". Like Dean, he played nonconformist rebels, and like him he died young.
The Polish band 2 Plus 1
2 plus 1
2 Plus 1 was a Polish band performing pop and folk music and in the later period of its activity also synthpop and rock. It was founded in 1971 in Warsaw by Janusz Kruk and Elżbieta Dmoch. The band has recorded ten studio albums, won a number of prizes and performed in many countries...
recorded a tribute album to Cybulski, called Aktor
Aktor
Aktor is the third studio album by Polish band 2 Plus 1, released in 1977. Its title translates Actor.- Album information :Aktor was a tribute to Polish actor Zbigniew Cybulski, who died in 1967. The album commemorated the 10th anniversary of his death. It wasn't a commercial success due to its...
in 1977.
In 1996, readers of Film
Film (Polish magazine)
Film is a monthly Polish magazine devoted to cinema. It has been in publication since 1946, originally as a bimonthly publication. The founders were Jerzy Giżycki, Zbigniew Pitera, Tadeusz Kowalski, and Leon Bukowiecki....
magazine awarded him the title of Best Polish Actor of All Time.
Filmography
- 1954 - A GenerationA GenerationA Generation is a 1955 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the novel Pokolenie by Bohdan Czeszko, who also wrote the script, and it was Wajda's first film and the opening installment of what became his Three War Films trilogy set in the Second World War, completed by Kanal and...
(as Kostek) - 1954 - Kariera
- 1955 - Trzy starty (as Mietek Leśniak)
- 1956 - Tajemnica dzikiego szybu
- 1957 - Wraki (as Rafał Grabień)
- 1957 - Koniec nocy (as Romek)
- 1958 - The Eight Day of the Week (as Piotr Terlecki)
- 1958 - Ashes and DiamondsAshes and Diamonds (film)Ashes and Diamonds is a 1958 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on the 1948 novel by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski...
(as Maciek Chełmicki) - 1958 - Krzyż Walecznych (as Więcek)
- 1959 - Night Train (as Staszek)
- 1960 - Do widzenia, do jutra (as Jacek)
- 1960 - Innocent SorcerersInnocent SorcerersInnocent Sorcerers is a 1960 film directed by Polish film director, Andrzej Wajda.- Cast :* Tadeusz Łomnicki – Bazyli* Krystyna Stypułkowska – Pelagia* Zbigniew Cybulski – Edmund* Wanda Koczeska – Mirka...
(as Edmund) - 1960 - Rozstanie (as renown actor)
- 1962 - La poupéeLa poupée (film)La poupée is a 1962 French-Italian science fiction film directed by Jacques Baratier. It was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Zbigniew Cybulski - Col. Prado Roth / The Rebel* Sonne Teal - Marion / La Poupée...
- 1962 - Love at TwentyLove at TwentyLove at Twenty is a 1962 French-produced omnibus project of Pierre Roustang, consisting of five segments directed by five directors from five different countries...
(as Zbyszek) - 1962 - How to Be LovedHow To Be LovedHow to be Loved , a Polish film released in 1963, directed by Wojciech Has.The film, based on a novel of the same name by Kazimierz Brandys, examines the emotional casualties of war, which is perhaps the central theme of the Polish Film School...
(as Wiktor Rawicz) - 1963 - Ich dzień powszedni
- 1963 - Zbrodniarz i panna
- 1963 - Milczenie
- 1963 - Rozwodów nie będzie (as Gruszka)
- 1964 - To Love
- 1964 - Giuseppe w Warszawie
- 1964 - The Saragossa ManuscriptThe Saragossa Manuscript (film)The Saragossa Manuscript is a 1965 Polish film directed by Wojciech Has, based on the 1815 novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki. Set primarily in Spain, it tells a frame story containing gothic, picaresque and erotic elements...
- 1965 - Pingwin (as Łukasz)
- 1965 - SaltoSalto (film)Salto is a film drama by written and directed by Polish director Tadeusz Konwicki. It was released on 11 June 1965 in Poland. The director of photography is Kurt Weber and the music was by Wojciech Kilar. The title can be translated as "somersault" in English, or it can be seen as a reference to a...
(as Kowalski/Malinowski) - 1965 - Sam pośród miasta
- 1965 - Jutro Meksyk
- 1966 - Przedświąteczny wieczór
- 1966 - Mistrz
- 1966 - Iluzja
- 1966 - Szyfry (as Maciek)
- 1967 - Cała naprzód (as Janek)
- 1967 - Morderca zostawia ślad
- 1967 - Jowita