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Elżbieta Czyżewska

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Occupation
  
Actress

Name
  
Elzbieta Czyzewska

Siblings
  
Krystyna Czyzewska

Years active
  
1958–2010

Role
  
Actress

Elzbieta Czyzewska Elbieta Czyewska Biography Artist Culturepl
Full Name
  
Elzbieta Justyna Czyzewska

Born
  
May 14, 1938 (
1938-05-14
)
Warsaw, Poland

Died
  
June 17, 2010, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

Spouse
  
David Halberstam (m. 1965–1977), Jerzy Skolimowski (m. 1959–1965)

Parents
  
Jadwiga Gimpel, Jan Czyzewski

Movies
  
The Saragossa Manuscript, Everything for Sale, Giuseppe in Warsaw, Malzenstwo z rozsadku, Maz swojej zony

Similar People
  
Jerzy Skolimowski, David Halberstam, Stanislaw Bareja, Beata Tyszkiewicz, Wojciech Jerzy Has

Elżbieta Justyna Czyżewska (May 14, 1938 – June 17, 2010) was a Polish actress active in both Poland and the United States.

Contents

Elżbieta Czyżewska ELBIETA CZYEWSKA SMUTNA BAJKA O KOPCIUSZKU Ewa Wojciechowska

Early life

Elżbieta Czyżewska Elbieta Czyewska Biography Artist Culturepl

Czyżewska was born in Warsaw in 1938. She attended the State Academy of Theatre in Warsaw and was advised by the Dean that in order to play leading roles in Romantic repertory she should undergo plastic surgery: to reduce the size of her breasts. Her answer, after she consulted her colleagues in the anti-establishment Student Satirical Theatre, was "No way".

Elżbieta Czyżewska Elzbieta Czyzewska Alchetron The Free Social Encyclopedia

Her first marriage was to the film director Jerzy Skolimowski. In 1965, she married the New York Times Warsaw correspondent, David Halberstam. She left Poland for the United States with him, but they divorced in 1977.

Career in Poland

Elżbieta Czyżewska ELBIETA CZYEWSKA SMUTNA BAJKA O KOPCIUSZKU Ewa Wojciechowska

At the peak of her film and theater career, and in trouble with the communist regime on account of her marriage to Halberstam - she was cast by the Polish director Andrzej Wajda in his film, Everything for Sale. The young directors of the Polish new wave in cinema recognized their peer in breaking the conventions of superficial romantic comedy. In A Bride for the Australian (1963), Where is the General (1963) and Giuseppe in Warsaw (1964), Czyżewska created a character who was almost the reverse of the Cinderella versus Prince Charming formula, as it was her charm and wit that turned her suitors into her equals. Not a "method" actor, she would never disappear into a character, nor would she, on the other hand, allow her striking persona to wholly define her succession of screen and theatre parts. Wojciech Has directed her performance in The Saragossa Manuscript (1964).

Elżbieta Czyżewska Elbieta Czyewska Biography Artist Culturepl

Besides the theater role that won her the major Golden Mask Award, Czyżewska had her most significant stage success in the Teatr Dramatyczny's 1965 production of Arthur Miller's After the Fall. By now internationally recognized (from Moscow to San Salvador) as one of Poland's top young actors, she expanded her artistic range in two film dramas: Unloved (1965) by Janusz Nasfeter and Wajda's Everything for Sale (1968). The dark mood of both these movies marked the country's disillusionment after a brief period of cultural "thaw". Unloved, set shortly before the outbreak of World War II, tells the story of a young Jewish woman's love affair whose ending coincides with the ominous atmosphere of the period, including the Holocaust.

She became an outcast and exile due to her marriage to Halberstam, who was expelled from Poland for his sharp criticisms of the regime at the time. Czyżewska's career was disrupted, and when she returned in 1968 at Wajda's invitation to play in his film, Everything for Sale, production was complicated by the March outbreak of student protests and the start of that year's Communist government's antisemitic expulsions. Ironically, Czyżewska herself was expelled, and partly because she promptly accepted a role in exiled director Aleksander Ford's adaptation of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle, she was unable to work in Poland until 1980 with the rise of Poland's Solidarność (Solidarity) movement, led by Lech Wałęsa.

Career in the United States

The 1987 Hollywood film Anna is loosely based on Czyżewska's life. In the film, an exiled European movie star played by Sally Kirkland, struggles to find work in New York City following her divorce from a well-connected intellectual, presumably based on David Halberstam. Kirkland was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actress category for this role and she won a Golden Globe(1988).

Elżbieta Czyżewska cultureplsitesdefaultfilesimagesimportedfil

Czyżewska continued doing theater work in the U.S., winning an Obie Award in 1990 for her role in Crowbar by Mac Wellman. Her American premieres also include other Wellman plays as well as Janusz Glowacki's Hunting Cockroaches. She performed in Ibsen's When We Dead Awaken at the American Repertory Theater, and in several productions at Yale Repertory Theater. She also played in Big Potato (by Arthur Laurents) at the Doris Duke Theater.

Czyżewska played the role of Greek socialite Maria Mitsotáki in a 1990 stage adaptation of The Changing Light at Sandover by James Merrill, sharing the stage with the poet. The performance was filmed and released as "Voices From Sandover" (Films for the Humanities, Inc., FFH 4182, distributed by Films Media Group, Princeton, New Jersey).

Her American films include Music Box, Running on Empty, Eduardo Machado's Exiles In New York and Putney Swope. Her television appearances include the American Playhouse drama Misplaced on PBS. Her most recent theater roles were in Martha Clarke's Vienna Lusthaus, Hedda Gabler at the New Theatre Workshop in 2004, and 'Darkling' in 2006. In June 2007, she returned to Poland for a performance of Darkling in Gniezno at the Aleksander Fredro Teatr.

In May 2005, Czyżewska was honored with the Cultural Award of Merit by the Consul General of the New York Polish Consulate. This is the highest award for a Polish American to receive. The ceremony began the first American retrospective of her work at the first New York Polish Film Festival, directed by Hanna Hartowicz.

Her final leading role was in the film June Weddings, adapted from a play written and directed by Barbara Hammond, that brought her great critical praise on the film festival circuit. Her role of a Russian émigré in New York was called "superbly acted" and "a grown-up feast". "The delightful Elzbieta Czyzewska plays a Russian woman so slyly, seductively Old World and languorous she gives "v" its own beat when she says "love." Baltimore's City Paper (Oct 23, 2008). The film also starred Tom Noonan.

Death

She died on June 17, 2010 in New York at the age of 72 from esophageal cancer. John Guare wrote "Erased/Elżbieta", a tribute play to Elżbieta Czyżewska which premiered at the Atlantic Theater in NY in 2011.

Filmography

Actress
2010
Damages (TV Series) as
Surly Russian Woman
- Don't Forget to Thank Mr. Zedeck (2010) - Surly Russian Woman
2009
The Hungry Ghosts as
Mrs. Dunleavy
2007
June Weddings (Short) as
Sonja
2006
S@motnosc w sieci as
Stranger in New Orleans
2006
Happiness (Short) as
Iwona
2003
Law & Order: Criminal Intent (TV Series) as
Katya's Mother
- Pravda (2003) - Katya's Mother
2000
Third Watch (TV Series) as
Katrina
- Jimmy's Mountain (2000) - Katrina
2000
Heimkehr der Jäger as
Claudia
1999
Sex and the City (TV Series) as
Dr. G Shapiro
- Was It Good for You? (1999) - Dr. G Shapiro (as Elizbieta Czyzewska)
1999
Coming Soon as
Dr. Luft
1998
O.K. Garage as
Mrs. Hummel
1996
I Love You, I Love You Not as
Dora
1996
Charms Zwischenfälle as
Irina Maser
1995
Szczur as
Malpka
1991
A Kiss Before Dying as
Landlady
1990
A Licensed Liberty (Short) as
Oberköchin
1990
Cadillac Man as
Soviet Wife
1989
Music Box as
Melinda Kalman
1989
Misplaced as
Halina
1989
Rude Awakening as
Enna
1988
Kocham kino as
Maria Borkowska
1988
Running on Empty as
Juilliard Woman
1983
Odwet as
Adzia Swidrycka
1982
Debiutantka as
Maria
1982
Daimler-Benz Limousine as
Franciszka Felinska, Maks' Wife
1973
The First Circle as
Cast: Simochka
1969
Putney Swope as
Putney's Maid
1969
Everything for Sale as
Elzbieta
1961
Teatr Polskiego Radia (Podcast Series) as
Woman / Lucja / Maja / ...
- Tchórz (1967) - Lucja (voice)
- Maja (1966) - Maja (voice)
- Mrozony dziadek (1966) - Granddaughter (voice)
- Opowiesc o siedmiu powieszonych (1965) - Musia (voice)
- Towarzysz N. (1965) - Mayor's Daughter (voice)
- Co za wypadek (1965) - Redactor (voice)
- Pan Damazy (1965) - Helena (voice)
- Polowanie na lwy (1965) - Woman (voice)
- Biuro (1964) - Secretary (voice)
- Autostop (1964) - Girl (voice)
- Przepasc (1964) - Nadinka (voice)
- Ziemia jest moim domem (1964) - Masza (voice)
- Fantazy (Nowa Dejanira) (1964) - Stella (voice)
- Wszystko dla naszej mamy (1964) - Ania (voice)
- Grozniejsza od wroga (1964) - Czurkin (voice)
- Milosc, zazdrosc, zbrodnia (1964) - (voice)
- Gaudeamus (1964) - Dina Stern (voice)
- Disneyland (1963) - Agnieszka (voice)
- Ksiezna Maja (1963) - Servant Dapina (voice)
- Spotkanie w Karlovych Varach (1963) - Heda (voice)
- Manewry (1963) - Woman (voice)
- Listy ze Stalingradu (1963) - (voice)
- Kucharki (1961) - Gogo (voice)
- Pierwszy dzien wolnosci (1961) - Lorchen (voice)
1967
Malzenstwo z rozsadku as
Joanna (as Elzbiete Czyzewska)
1966
Niekochana as
Noemi
1966
Kapitan Sowa na tropie (TV Series) as
Józefina Urszula Czerska
- Trzecia reka (1966) - Józefina Urszula Czerska
1965
Swieta wojna as
Gabrysia
1965
Identification Marks: None as
Theresa / Barbara / Housewife
1965
Walkover as
Girl at theTrain Station
1965
Obok prawdy as
Magda
1965
The Saragossa Manuscript as
Donna Frasquetta Salero
1964
Pierwszy dzien wolnosci as
Luzzi Rhode
1964
Przerwany lot as
Urszula
1964
Giuseppe w Warszawie as
Maria
1964
Zona dla Australijczyka as
Hanka Rebowska
1964
Gdzie jest general... as
Marusia
1963
Passenger as
Female Prisoner (uncredited)
1963
Milczenie as
Kazia
1963
Godzina pasowej rózy as
Ania
1962
Pistolet typu 'Walter P-38' (TV Short) as
Waitress
1962
Dziewczyna z dobrego domu as
Krystyna, Tadeusz's girlfriend
1962
Zloto as
Dorota
1962
Dom bez okien as
Teresa Kwasnikówna
1961
Erotyk (Short)
1961
Zuzanna i chlopcy as
Monika
1961
All Soul's Day as
Lt. Listek
1961
Maz swojej zony as
Renata Trebska
1960
Hamles (Short) as
Ofelka
Thanks
2015
Aktorka (Documentary) (in memory of)
Self
1969
Na planie (Documentary short) as
Self
1959
S.T.S. 58 (Documentary short) as
Singer

References

Elżbieta Czyżewska Wikipedia