Seweryn, Andrzej

(1946-)

   Respected film and theater actor, living since 1980 in France and later associated with the Comedie Francaise. From 1984 to 1988, Seweryn was also a member of the Peter Brook theater troupe. His first major role in cinema was in Jan Rybkowski's Polish Album (1970), two years after graduating from the Warsaw State Acting School (PWST). He achieved recognition later for his starring role as Maks Baum in Andrzej Wajda's The Promised Land (1975). At that time he also appeared in strong supporting roles in Nights and Days (1975, Jerzy Antczak) and Leaves Have Fallen (1975, Stanisław Różewicz). The late 1970s brought him several important roles in films directed by Rybkowski (The Line, 1978) and Jerzy Domaradzki (The Beast, 1979), but above all in other films by Wajda. He played the greedy opportunist Rościszewski in Rough Treatment (1978), the overambitious conductor of a provincial orchestra in The Orchestra Conductor (1980), the security service (SB) captain Wirski in Man of Iron (1981), and Bourdon in Danton (1983). In several films made during the Cinema of Distrust period, he played generational characters, for example in Sylwester Chęciński's Roman and Magda (1978), Janusz Kijowski's Kung-fu (1980), and Janusz Zaorski's Child's Questions (1981). Seweryn became known not only as a talented actor but also as a hardworking perfectionist.

   In the 1980s and 1990s, Seweryn played several strong supporting roles in films made mostly in France, including Marco Belocchio's La condanna (1990), Regis Wargnier's Indochina (Indochine, 1992), and Claude Berri's Lucie Aubrac (1997). He also acted in Schindler's List (1993, Steven Spielberg) and Total Eclipse (1995, Agnieszka Holland). Recent years have brought him acclaim in Poland for his appearances in several prestigious adaptations, such as With Fire and Sword (1999, Jerzy Hoffman) and Pan Tadeusz (1999) and Revenge (2002), both directed by Wajda. His role as Primate Stefan Wyszyński in Teresa Kotlarczyk's The Primate: Three Years out of the Millenium (2000) was also praised. The readers of weekly Film voted him the best Polish actor in 2000. In 2006 he made his directorial debut with the contemporary psychological drama Who Never Lived (Kto nigdy nie żył, 2006).

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof