Kondrat, Marek

(1950-)

   Popular Polish actor, voted the best Polish actor in 1997 and 2003 by readers of weekly Film and the best television actor in 1995, 1998, and 1999. The son of distinguished Polish actor Tadeusz Kondrat (1908-1994), Marek Kondrat began acting as a child in Sylwester Chęciński's children's film The Story of the Golden Boot (1961). Three years after completing the Warsaw Acting School (PWST) in 1972, he delivered a memorable performance as a young waiter working in an exclusive Kraków hotel in the 1930s in Janusz Majewski's Hotel Pacific (1975). Later he often appeared in Majewski's films, for example in a supporting role in stylish The Lesson of a Dead Language (1979) and starring in the barrack comedy Deserters (1985) and its sequel, Deserter's Gold (1998). In 1976 Kondrat had a lead role in Andrzej Wajda's adaptation of Joseph Conrad's The Shadow Line (1976). In the following years he played several roles, for example in films by Wojciech Marczewski (Nightmares, 1979), Wajda (Danton, 1983), and Krzysztof Kieślowski (No End, 1985).

   Kondrat's career flourished in the 1990s. He starred in action films, for example, playing a corrupt former Communist secret police officer, Olo Żwirski, in Władysław Pasikowski's The Pigs (1992), as well as a hard-bitten Warsaw police inspector, Olgierd Halski, in the popular television series Extradition (1995-1996, 1998) directed by Wojciech Wójcik. He was praised for his lead role in Kazimierz Kutz's Colonel Kwiatkowski (1996), where he played an army physician who pretends to be a high-ranked Stalinist secret police officer, and for his strong supporting role in Kutz's The Turned Back (1994). In recent years, Kondrat has maintained his popularity appearing in heritage films such as Pan Tadeusz (1999, Wajda) and starring in other prestigious productions such as Marczewski's Weiser (2001), Robert Glinski's The Call of the Toad (2005), and Jan Hryniak's The Third (Trzeci, 2004). Arguably, his finest and most popular performance was in the role of neurotic Adaś Miauczyński in Marek Koterski's The Day of the Wacko (2002) and We All Are Christs (2006).

   In 1999 Kondrat made his directorial debut with Father's Law (Prawo ojca), in which he also stars as a single father avenging his teenage daughter. Kondrat's achievements also include numerous television theater performances and appearances in the popular Television Cabaret of Olga Lipińska.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof