Junosza-Stępowski, Kazimierz

(1882-1943)

   Kazimierz Junosza-Stepowski's name is inseparably linked with prewar Polish cinema. He started his career in 1902, acting in the first Polish narrative film produced by Kazimierz Prószyński, The Return of a Merry Fellow, and continued until the war, making several films per year (ten in 1938), including some of the best-known prewar Polish works. He appeared in films directed by Ryszard Bolesławski (7he Heroism of a Polish Boy Scout, 1920, and Miracle on the Vistula, 1921), Józef Lejtes (The Young Forest, 1934, and The Rose, 1936), Michał Waszyński (The Quack, 1937, and Professor Wilczur, 1938), and several other leading prewar Polish directors. At the beginning of his career, Junosza-Stępowski, also a respected Warsaw theatrical actor, starred with Pola Negri and then Jadwiga Smosarska in several films produced by the Sfinks studio. He was arguably the most accomplished and the most versatile prewar actor and succeeded in several genres and in silent as well as sound films. Although during his long career he appeared in fifty-seven films (twenty-two of which were silent), perhaps his most memorable creation was the character of a noble surgeon, Professor Wilczur, in The Quack and its two sequels, Professor Wilczur and Professor Wilczur's Last Will (1939, Leonard Buczkowski). Junosza-Stępowski was killed in 1943 by the members of the Polish Home Army (AK) while trying to protect his wife, a gestapo informer. His wife, who survived the assassination attempt, was killed nine months later. In 1989 Jerzy Sztwiertnia made Daze (Oszołomienie), a feature film inspired by Junosza-Stepowski's life and the circumstances of his death.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof