Famous people

Film & Theater

 

Pola Negri (Barbara Apolonia Chalupiec, 1897-1987) – actress, one of the biggest stars of German and American silent cinema. In 1923 she moved to the USA and became a star in Hollywood. She had affairs with Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino.

Roman Polanski (b. 1933) – film and theater director, screenwriter, film producer, known for the films “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968), “Chinatown” (1974), “Bitter Moon” (1992), “The Pianist” (2002 ). His work has won many prizes, among others, Oscar and Palme d’Or.

Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) – theater director, theater reformer and educator. Creator of the avant-garde “theater of participation” (with no division between audience and actors). Among other places, he worked in the United States and Italy and his legacy is appreciated around the world.

Janusz Kaminski (b. 1959) – cinematographer, lives and works in the United States. In 1993, he received an Academy Award for the film “Schindler’s List” by Steven Spielberg. Known for: “The Lost World – Jurassic Park” (1997), “Saving Private Ryan” (1998, Oscar), “Artificial Intelligence” (2001).

 

Literature

 

Jozef Korzeniowski, better known as Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) – English writer of Polish origin. Sailed the world as a sailor in the British merchant navy. His work has been recognized as a classic of world literature of the twentieth century, the most important of his works include “Lord Jim” (1900), “Heart of Darkness” (1902), “The Game of Fate” (1913).

Witold Marian Gombrowicz (1904-1969) – novelist, playwright, essayist. A month before World War II he traveled to Argentina, where he lived until 1963. The Literary Institute in Paris published his great works : “Trans-Atlantic” (1953), “Pornography” (1960), and “Cosmos” (1965) .

Ryszard Kapuscinski (1932-2007) – journalist, writer, traveler and photographer known as the “Emperor of reportage.” He worked as a foreign correspondent in Africa, Latin America and Asia. His phenomenal reports have been translated into 35 languages​​, and are recognized as an exemplary pieces of thorough journalism.

Stanisław Lem (1921-2006) – writer and futurologist, the most outstanding Polish representative of mainstream science fiction and the most translated Polish writer (translated into 41 languages​​). His novel “Solaris” (1961) was filmed by Steven Soderbergh in 2002 (with a cast including George Clooney)

Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012) – poet and literary critic, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1996). In 2001, made an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the most important American distinction awarded to renowned artists.

 

Music

 

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) – the greatest Polish composer and virtuoso pianist, his work is renowned throughout the world. Due to the political situation in Poland he spent most of his life abroad, including France. His works had an enormous impact on European music in the second half of the nineteenth century

Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki (1933 – 2010) – composer and educator, was famous as a radical avant-garde, reduced the means of expression and simplified language. The most important and best-known work of Górecki’s Third Symphony also known as the “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” (1976, known in the United States through the implementation singer Dawn Upshaw).

Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) – composer, pianist, conductor. He composed symphonies, concerts, and was active in music, theater and radio. He was vice-president of the International Society for Contemporary Music and a member of many societies and academies of music. He performed with the most famous orchestras in the world as a conductor of his own works.

Artur Rubinstein (1887-1982) – piano virtuoso, one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century, an eminent interpreter of Chopin’s music. In his 80-year career he played more than 6,000 concerts. In 1946, became a U.S. citizen.

 

Science

 

Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934) – famous Polish physicist and chemist. She lived and worked in France. She was the first woman in history to become a professor at the Sorbonne. Together with her husband Pierre Curie in 1898, she discovered polonium and radium. She as twice awarded the Nobel Prize, in 1903 and 1911.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) – an outstanding astronomer, mathematician, physician. He was the first to develop a heliocentric model of the solar system, and his findings were published in the work “On the Revolutions of the Celestial” (De revolutionibus orbium Coelestium).

Casimir Funk (1884-1967) – biochemist. In 1912, coined the term “vitamin”. He studied and treated patients with vitamin deficiency. He as the first to isolate Vitamin B1. He conducted research on hormones, isolating insulin and the causes of cancer.

Leonid Hurwicz (1917-2008) – economist. After World War II, he worked and lived in the United States in cooperation with prestigious universities in the U.S. and other countries. In 2007 he received the Nobel Prize in Economics (with Eric S. Maskin and Roger Myerson).

 

Important Personalities

 

St. Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) – Karol Wojtyla, Bishop of Krakow and from 16.10.1978 pope. During his pontificate, he made more than 100 pilgrimages to countries around the world and made a quantum leap for the reconciliation of peoples and religions (he was the first pope to visit a synagogue and mosque), contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746-1817) – Polish and American General, fought for the independence of the Polish uprising in 1794. Took part in the War of Independence of the United States, where, in recognition of his achievements, was made a brigadier general of U.S. troops. The highest mountain in Australia was named in his honor.

Wladyslaw Sikorski (1881 – 1943) – politician, general, during World War II prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile, the Supreme Leader and the General Inspector of the Polish Armed Forces. Attempted to engage the USSR in diplomatic relations. He died in an unexplained plane crash over the Straits of Gibraltar. He was buried in the UK, and in 1993 his ashes were brought to Poland (Krakow).

Jozef  Piłsudski (1867-1935) – politician, statesman, Marshal of the Poland. During World War I he created the Polish Legions (the forerunner of the modern army) and after Poland’s regaining independence was the Commander in Chief of the Polish Army and Marshal of the Poland. He was awarded many national and international awards in France, Spain, Japan and elsewhere.

Jan Karski, also known as John Kozielewski (1914-2000) – a legendary courier for the Army during World War II. He was a courier and emissary (with missions to Paris, England and the USA). He passed information to the Allies on occupied Poland and alarmed the Allies about the tragedy of the Jewish people and the extermination camps. After the war he remained in exile in the United States.