She was the first wife of Roman Polanski. She dumped him by sending him a letter. “I found the love of my life”

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She was born on June 1, 1940 in Patrów. At the insistence of the teachers, Barbara Kwiatkowska’s parents agreed to let her join the “Skolimów” Song and Dance Ensemble. Her talent was discovered in the mid-1950s, when she also attended one of Warsaw’s ballet schools. The novice director Tadeusz Chmielewski was looking for a young and beautiful girl who would play the role of the main character in the comedy “Ewa wants to sleep”. Once in Łódź, Kwiatkowska was recording dance scenes for the short film “Epizod”, people from the director’s team spotted her and offered her the title role. At the age of 16, she started working as an actress.

Barbara Kwiatkowska delighted Roman Polanski. “She was one of the most beautiful girls”

While working on the set of “Ewa Wants to Sleep”, Barbara Kwiatkowska met Roman Polański. The young man immediately fell in love with her and couldn’t take his eyes off her. in his autobiography “Romek”, as quoted by , he recalled:

She was one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen. Dark brown, almost brunette, with an almond-shaped face, gorgeous long eyelashes, a snub nose, and a lithe, firm body.

At first, their acquaintance was not romantic. For nearly seven years, Polański provided support for the young actress in difficult times on the set and experienced her love dilemmas with her. Eventually, their friendship turned into love. Despite the initial fears of family and friends due to their different character traits, the actress accepted the director. In 1959, their lavish wedding took place, which was also attended by the militia.

Roman Polański became the “director of her life”. The actress also developed a career abroad

Polanski had ambitions to make his wife a real movie star. The director was negotiating the terms of Kwiatkowska’s roles, which was gaining more and more fans not only in Poland, but also around the world. Thanks to his protection, she got a role in Andrzej Munk’s film “Bad Luck”. She also appeared in films such as “The Thousandth Window” with Jean-Louis Trintignant and “What a Joy to Live” with Alain Delon.

The career of Barbara Kwiatkowska, who adopted the stage name Barbara Lass, developed splendidly, but her marriage soon ended. When in 1962 the actress was working in Rome on the film set “Rififi in Tokyo” she met the then famous Austrian actor Karlheinz Böhm. Polanski, concerned about the lack of contact from Kwiatkowska, called the hotel where she was staying in Italy. After some time, a letter came to their apartment in Łódź with the words “I found the love of my life”. Soon after, information about the divorce of Kwiatkowska and Polanski appeared.