Wojciech Zygmunt Pszoniak (2 May 1942 – 19 October 2020) was a Polish film and theatre actor.

Wojciech Pszoniak
Pszoniak in 2019 at Pol'and'Rock Festival
Born	(1942-05-02)2 May 1942 Lwów, Second Polish Republic (present-day Ukraine)
Died	19 October 2020(2020-10-19) (aged 78) Warsaw, Poland
Nationality	Polish
Education	AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków
Occupation	film and theatre actor, pedagogue
Years active	1965–2019
Signature

Biography and career

Pszoniak was born in Lwów, Nazi occupied Poland, now in Ukraine. He gained international visibility following Andrzej Wajda's 1975 film The Promised Land, in which he played Moritz, one of the three main characters.[1]

The actor left Poland during the period of political unrest in 1980–81, when the Solidarity trade union began and was ended by the imposition of martial law on 13 December 1981. Pszoniak found roles in France, where he was living and working. After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, Pszoniak appeared in Polish movies and plays.[2][3]

Internationally, he simplified his first name into Wojtek, which is the standard diminutive of the relatively formal Wojciech in the Polish language.

Pszoniak often played Jewish characters, although he was not of Jewish descent. In France, this was partially attributable to his role in The Promised Land, as well as his foreign accent.

Pszoniak did not speak French when he emigrated to France, so he learned his theatrical lines phonetically; in movies like Danton, where he played Robespierre, his voice was dubbed. An anecdote about his language skills relates that when he started speaking French, one director told him that he preferred his old accent.[4]

He died in Warsaw, aged 78.

Selected filmography

Selected honours and distinctions

• Eagle Award for his role in Excentrycy, czyli po słonecznej stronie ulicy, (2016)
• Best Supporting Actor Award at the Gdynia Film Festival for his role in Excentrycy, czyli po słonecznej stronie ulicy, (2015)
• Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, (2011)[5]
• National Order of Merit, for his contributions to strengthening Polish-French relations in the field of culture, France (2008)
• Golden Medal of the Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis, (2007)
• Golden Cross of Merit, (1975)
• Award of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, (1975)

See also

• Cinema of Poland
• List of Poles

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wojciech Pszoniak.

• Wojciech Pszoniak at IMDb

На других языках

[ru] Пшоняк, Войцех