Barbara Kwiatkowska-Lass

Barbara Kwiatkowska-Lass (1 June 1940 – 6 March 1995) was a Polish actress.

Early life and career

She was born in Partów, a village in central Poland. 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 Che gioia vivere (with Alain Delon). She played roles in several Italian, French and German films such as Krzysztof Zanussi's Blaubart (1983) and in Stachel im Fleisch (1981).

Personal life

She married film director Roman Polanski in 1959; they divorced in 1962. The following year she met Karlheinz Böhm on the set of the movie Rififi in Tokyo (Rififi à Tokyo, 1963) in Tokyo; the couple later married, their daughter is actress Katharina Böhm.