Wilhelmi, Roman

(1936-1991)

   Film and television actor. A 1958 graduate of the Warsaw acting school (PWST), Wilhelmi debuted in film with an episodic role in Andrzej Munk's Eroica (1958, uncredited), followed by several supporting roles in the 1960s. He appeared in, among others, The Teutonic Knights (1960, Aleksander Ford), Tonight the City Will Die (1961, Jan Rybkowski), and Westerplatte (1967, Stanisław Różewicz). He became popular thanks to his role in the television series Four Tankmen and a Dog (1966-1967, Konrad Nałęcki). Wilhelmi received critical praise later for his roles in Walerian Borowczyk's The Story of Sin (1975) and Janusz Majewski's Hotel Pacific (1975), in both films playing manipulative, sadistic characters. For the latter film he was awarded at the Festival of Polish Films. After an important role in another film by Majewski, The Gorgon Affair (1977), and Andrzej Wajda's Rough Treatment (1978), Wilhelmi excelled by playing a strong supporting role in Filip Bajon's Aria for an Athlete (1979) and starring as a sensitive radio talk show host in Tomasz Zygadło's The Moth (1980), for which he received awards at the Festival of Polish Films and the Moscow Film Festival. Arguably, his crowning achievement was the title role as a simpleton, Nikodem Dyzma, and his rise to power in a popular television series, The Career of Nikodem Dyzma (1980), directed by Jan Rybkowski. Also in 1980, Wilhelmi played the leading role in the psychological drama Smaller Sky, directed by Janusz Morgenstern, followed by starring roles in Piotr Szulkin's War of the Worlds: Next Century (1981/1983), Zygadło's Revenge (1982), and Wojciech Wojcik's Private Investigation (1986). His last screen appearance was a strong supporting role in Andrzej Żuławski's French film Blue Note (1991).

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof