He believed until the very end that he would recover. “It’s much harder to be a good person than a good actor”

– For some reason, the directors saw him that way, i.e. preferably in these gangster or soldier roles – Agnieszka Kowalska, wife of Maciej Kozłowski, in the Polish Radio broadcast in 2013. – Anyway, he also had this way of being slightly rough, but far from any sentimentality, pretentiousness. He was such a tough guy, but very honest, with a backbone and extremely open to compassion, to empathy – she added. He married a painter, a longtime partner, in 2009. Many people who knew him had great fondness and respect for him.

“Do not have any complexes, living and growing up in Kargowa can also become someone”

Maciej Kozłowski was born in September 1957 in Kargowa, where he began his adventure with acting, playing in school plays. Later, he publicly mentioned his hometown many times, and its residents gave him the title of honorary resident of the commune in gratitude. He funded a computer for a student from Kargowa, who was born with a serious eye defect, and organized trips to Warsaw for kids from the local school. – They were amazing, because who else would come up with the idea of ​​transporting children on a presidential plane ” – after his death, a friend from childhood. You can also become someone at Kargowa.

Then he lived in Zgierz, where he graduated from the Technical School of Water Management. He decided to apply to the Acting Department of the PWSFTviT in Łódź – he graduated in 1984. He made his theater debut in 1983. Cinema fans and TV viewers remember him from such productions as “Kingsajz”, “Kroll”, “Psy”, “Kiler” or “Ogniem i Mieczem”. He also played in the series “Mothers, wives and mistresses”, “Reversed” or “M jak miłość”, where he played the role of Waldemar Jarosze.

He was also eager to engage in charity – as an avid sportsman, he was a member of the Representation of Polish Artists. It was while donating blood as part of the social campaign that Krewniacy found out that he was infected with the hepatitis C virus. For the next five years, he believed that he would recover and, despite his illness, he continued to be professionally active. “I met him at the premiere of Boguś Linda’s ‘Windows Wide Open’ (cancer plays one of the roles there, motherfucker …). He could barely stand on his feet. Yellow as Emmenthal. He talked about the chemistry he had just undergone and which was a nightmare. that he will never give in to it again. Two words and a heavy breath, two words and a five-second break” – Zbigniew Holdys after his death. “Then, about a year and a half ago, we met at the ‘Champions’ restaurant, he didn’t eat, because he couldn’t eat anything, he only talked. About theater, film, patents. He drank only water without gas,” he wrote. Unfortunately, the infection eventually developed into liver cancer. Akror died on May 11, 2010 in a Warsaw hospital.

Maciej Kozłowski: You should live as if every day was your last

– Someone said that there are actors of the first and second half of life, and a few giants who combine them. I definitely believe that I am an actor of the second half of my life, which means that the best is still ahead of me – a year after learning the diagnosis in an interview with “Trybuna”. His most important film character is Krzywonos from the screen adaptation of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s novel. It was a historical figure, a Cossack colonel who was one of the main leaders of the Khmelnytsky uprising. The actor himself said that the hero of the novel caught his attention when he read “With Fire and Sword” for the first time as a child. He reached for the book, which he talked about in an interview with “Rzeczpospolita” as a 12-year-old, when he was suffering from the flu. – He was a man who wanted incredibly. And he was always ready to stand in front of the camera. That’s why I expanded his character, and in a role in which there are few dialogues, he created a character who will stay in the memory of the audience for a long time – said the director of “With Fire and Sword” about the actor. In Hoffman’s production, Kozłowski was supposed to play a member of the Polish Revolutionary Committee in “Bitwa Warszawskiej 1920”. Didin’t make it.

Maciej Kozłowski on the set of ‘With Fire and Sword’ photo. Piotr Skórnicki / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

– I don’t discuss judgments. It is worth remembering that at the moment of conception we get a new life and a new death. You should live as if each day was your last. I still have some work to do. You have to live and bear witness,” said Maciej Kozłowski a few years before his death. In an interview for “Gala” magazine in 2006, he also said:

You live for a few meetings and a few emotions. It’s important not to miss them. It’s much harder to be a good person than a good actor.

Bogus³aw Linda, who collaborated with the actor several times, remembered him with great affection. – Maciek was a very warm, very righteous man. He will be missed. He was a professional, but full of humility. He tried to do his best job, he said.