Born: November 3, 1927, Kniaze, Poland (presently Ukraine).
Died: Jamuary 8, 1967, Wroclaw, Poland.
Early days. In 1947, he enrolled at the Kraków University of Economics and at the department of Journalism at the School of Social Sciences. After two years, he abandoned his studies and enrolled at the National Art Academy in Kraków, where he graduated in 1953. Tha same year he went to Gdańsk with his entire graduating class, under the supervision of film director Lidia Zamkow he began performing at the Wybrzeże Theatre. Also, in 1954, with his friend Bogumił Kobiela, Cybulski founded a famous student theater, the Bim-Bom. Each show was enthusiastically received by the audience. Performances were staged in Poland and abroad, in Belgium, France, Austria, Holland and East Germany.
Career. Despite not being strictly political in nature, even before 1956, the theatre indirectly attacked and mocked authorities. In the early 1960s, Cybulski moved to Warsaw, where he shortly joined the Kabaret Wagabunda. He also appeared on stage at the Ateneum Theater, one of the most modern and least conservative Warsaw-based theatres of the epoch. However, Cybulski is best remembered as a screen actor. He first appeared in a 1954 film Kariera as an extra. His first major role came in 1958, when he played in Kazimierz Kutz's Krzyż Walecznych. The same year he also appeared as one of the main characters in Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds and Aleksander Ford's The Eighth Day of the Week based on a short story by Marek Hłasko. From then on Cybulski was seen as one of the most notable actors of the Polish Film School and one of the "young and wrathful", as his generation of actors were called at the time. Thanks to his role in Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds, Cybulski became well-known and distinguished abroad, that in 1961, he starred in three films produced in France: La Poupée / He, She or It directed by Jacques Baratier, a surreal comedy in which he played two roles, the dictator Prado Roth and the rebel, and Thé a la menthe / Mint Tea directed by Pierre Kafian, in this short film Cybulski played a young man in a café. The third role was that of Zbyszek - a pathetic, ridiculous man, in the segment Warsaw directed by Andrzej Wajda - part of the film L'amour ŕ vingt ans / Love at Twenty, a collaboration of different directors around the world. His most famous films, apart from Ashes and Diamonds, include Wojciech Has' The Saragossa Manuscript. At the end of 1959, Cybulski began performing at the Ateneum Theatre in Warsaw. His first role was Jerry in Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson, directed by Andrzej Wajda. He also played in Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner, directed by Jerzy Markuszewski (1962). He also acted in numerous television plays, including some based on works by Truman Capote, Anton Chekhov and Jerzy Andrzejewski. Cybulski died in an accident at a Wrocław Główny railway station on January 8, 1967, on his way from the film set. As he jumped off the speeding train (as he often did), he slipped on the steps, fell under the train, and was run over. Before the accident he said goodbye to Marlene Dietrich, a personal friend of his, who was a passenger on the train. He was buried in Katowice. Cybulski remains a legend of the Polish cinema. His style of acting was revolutionary at the time as was his image (leather clothes and big sunglasses). He was often referred to as "the Polish James Dean". Like Dean, he played nonconformist rebels, and like him he died young In 1964 he starred in another foreign film, this time Swedish Att Älska / To Love directed by Jörn Donner. His partner in the film was Harriet Anderson. In total, Zbigniew Cybulski played in 35 feature films, 10 stage plays and 9 TV shows. On the day before his death, he received a call from New York, notifying him that he was chosen among other actors for the role of Kowalski in the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, which was to be executed for a New York television. A number of books were also written about the actor. Among them: O Zbigniewie Cybulskim - Wspomnienia / About Zbigniew Cybulski - Memories by Włodzimierz Bielicki (1969); Okno Zbyszka Cybulskiego / Zbigniew Cybulski's Window by Jerzy Afanasjew (1970) and Cybulski Zbigniew - aktor XX wieku / Cybulski Zbigniew - actor of the twentieth century, edited by Jan Ciechowicz and Tadeusz Szczepański (1997).
Awards, prizes. In 1969 the Zbyszek Cybulski Award for young film actors with strong individuality was introduced The Polish band 2 Plus 1 recorded a tribute album to Cybulski, called Aktor in 1977. In 1984 he posthumously won first place in the competition for the best actor of the last 40 years, organized by the Department of Culture and Art of Łódź Medical University. In 1996, readers of Film magazine awarded him the title of Best Polish Actor of All Time. In 1997, on the thirtieth anniversary of his death, Andrzej Wajda unveiled a commemorative plaque at the spot where the actor died on the train station platform in Wrocław. In 1999 a star was unveiled in Łódź's Walk of Fame on ul. Piotrkowska.
Filmography
1954 - A Generation , Kariera
• 1955 - Trzy starty,
• 1956 - Tajemnica dzikiego szybu
• 1957 – Wraki, Koniec nocy
• 1958 - The Eight Day of the Week, Ashes and Diamonds, Krzyż Walecznych
• 1959 - Night Train
• 1960 - Do widzenia, do jutra, Innocent Sorcerers, Rozstanie
• 1962 - La poupée, Love at Twenty, How to Be Loved
• 1963 - Ich dzień powszedni, Zbrodniarz i panna, Milczenie, Rozwodów nie będzie
• 1964 - To Love, Giuseppe w Warszawie, The Saragossa Manuscript
• 1965 - Pingwin, Salto, Sam pośród miasta, Jutro Meksyk
• 1966 - Przedświąteczny wieczór, Mistrz, Iluzja, Szyfry
• 1967 - Cała naprzód, Morderca zostawia ślad, Jowita
• Zbigniew Cybulski at the Internet Movie Database
• Zbigniew Cybulski at culture.pl
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