Polish actor Roman Kłosowski dies aged 89

A well-known face on the silver screen in Poland for decades, Kłosowski created dozens of memorable film as well as theatre roles, including in movies that achieved cult status when the country was under communism from the end of World War II to 1989.

These included his most remembered performance as Roman Maliniak in Czterdziestolatek (Being Forty), a television comedy series originally broadcast between 1974 and 1977.

Kłosowski also appeared in Polish cinema classics such as Andrzej Munk’s Eroica (1958), Czesław Petelski’s The Depot of the Dead (Baza ludzi umarłych, 1959), Jerzy Passendorfer’s The Attempt (Zamach, 1959), and Andrzej Kondratiuk's Hydro-Riddle (Hydrozagadka, 1971).

He also played a part in Four Tank Men and a Dog (Czterej pancerni i pies), an iconic war adventure television series that ran from 1966 to 1970, telling the story of a Polish tank crew during World War II.

Born in 1929 in the southern town of Bielsko-Biała, Kłosowski graduated from the acting department of the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw in 1953. He also earned a directing degree from the same academy in 1965.

He made his debut as a film actor in Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s 1953 movie Cellulose (Celuloza).

Over the years, he worked for a number of theatres in Warsaw, including the Dramatyczny, Ludowy, Nowy and Syrena.

From 1976 to 1981 he managed the Powszechny Theatre in the central city of Łódź.

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR/PAP