Danuta Szaflarska performed on stage, in films, TV series, radio plays, Television Theater, dubbing, she took part in the Warsaw Uprising, and during the war she performed in underground theaters. At the age of 101, she appeared on stage for the last time. In November 2016, she appeared on the stage as a grumpy old lady in Dorota Masłowska’s “Między nami jest się”, directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna. – You only get old when you feel that way. I don’t feel old, she said in one of her recent interviews. She had other acting plans, but her health did not allow them to be realized. She died on February 19, 2017.
Danuta Szaflarska made her debut on stage just after the outbreak of the war. Acting has been her passion since childhood
Danuta Szaflarska was born on February 6, 1915 in Kosarzyska, which today is part of Piwniczna-Zdrój. In 1939, she graduated from the State Institute of Theater Art in Warsaw. As she recalled, she had a passion for acting since childhood. – I loved imitating someone’s gestures and the way they moved – she recalled in an interview with Wysokie Obcasy. In their childhood, they also enjoyed theater performances with their friends. – It was mainly what we saw in the church. We most often played masses, baptisms and weddings. The towel was taken to be a veil, she confessed.
After her father’s death, she, her mother and siblings moved to a tenement house in Nowy Sącz. There she joined an amateur theater. And although she was passionate about , she initially did not plan to study this field. She dreamed of medicine, but for financial reasons she chose cheaper studies at the University of Economics in Krakow. During the holidays, she went skiing with her friends. – We were just at the border when we found out that right behind it, in Slovakia, they were selling oranges – she said. They crossed the border illegally, bought a kilogram of fruit, but when returning they were caught by the border guard. Fortunately, they managed to escape. However, Danuta Szaflarska had to interrupt her studies during the first year due to typhus. After returning to Nowy Sącz, at the suggestion of her friends, she decided to apply to acting school.
Danuta Szaflarska in 1939, just after graduating from acting studies Danuta Szaflarska, Photo. National Digital Archives
The beginnings of her acting career were not easy for Danuta Szaflarska. “We suffered terrible hunger”
Danuta Szaflarska made her theater debut after the explosion – in Vilnius. When, after the USSR attacked Poland, the terrified audience fled to the accompaniment of the roar of shells and artillery, Szaflarska and her colleagues from the theater did not leave the stage and finished the performance. During the war, she performed in underground theaters and the front theater of the Home Army. In 1944, as a liaison nicknamed “Młynarzówna”, she took part in the Warsaw Uprising.
– We suffered terrible hunger. After the uprising, I was left alone, only with my child and mother, admitted Szaflarska. The women went to Krakow, where Szaflarska got a job in the theater. Later she went to Łódź. In 1946, she made her debut on the big screen in the first post-war Polish feature film, “Forbidden Songs” by Leonard Buczkowski. – The remuneration was a pittance – she revealed, adding that all the actors appeared on the set in their own clothes.
Danuta Szaflarska on the cover of ‘Film’ magazine promoting ‘Forbidden Songs’ Photo Self-scanned, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Danuta Szaflarska’s great career also began with this role. In the 1950s and 1960s, she appeared in such productions as “Revenge”, “House of Cards”, “Men on the Train”, “House Without Windows”. She also appeared in many television and theater performances. She has had over 40 film and over 80 theater roles. She was called “the first lover of Polish cinema”. And although as an actress she was used to cameras and spotlights, she hated being photographed. – Such a posed photo is unnatural. If they take photos of me talking and moving, then please. But there’s no point in trying to set me up, she emphasized.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
