He stole the audience’s hearts with his role as Pawlak in “Samimy Sami”. After a family tragedy, he gave up his career

To this day, he is considered one of the greatest actors of his generation. His artistic achievements included roles in productions such as “Adventure in Mariensztacie”, “Ewa Wants to Sleep”, “The Stakes Greater than Life” and “Civil War”, but he gained viewers’ sympathy by portraying Kazimierz Pawlak in the cult series of films “Themselves”. “their own”. Although he was triumphant on the screen, in private he was hit hard by fate.

Thanks to a friend from the cadet school, Wacław Kowalski met his wife. Only his death separated them

Already as a child, the actor first faced the premature death of his father and then his sister, who drowned in a river at the age of 12. Despite this, he did not break down, and painful experiences taught him how to cope with adversity. After graduating from the Teachers’ Seminary, he started working as a teacher, but interrupted it with the outbreak of World War II. Then he was drafted into the officer cadet school, where he became friends with the nondescript Wacław Osikowski. At that time, he didn’t even imagine that his new friend’s sister would become his wife.

Already at their first meeting, Stanisława caught his eye, and it was mutual. The time they spent together made them fall madly in love with each other and in 1943 they decided to get married. Only 3 years later, their firstborn Jan was born, and after a decade the family was expanded by another Maciej. At that time, Kowalski tried to combine household duties, work and studies at the Music Conservatory in Łódź, where his acting potential was noticed by Leon Schiller himself. It was he who suggested that he take part in one of his programs. Despite numerous fears, he decided to try his hand at it, which, as it turned out, opened the door to his career.

He was at the peak of his career when his younger son was killed. Then Wacław Kowalski gave up his career

Viewers immediately fell in love with Kowalski, and reviewers lavished praise on him. This resulted in numerous roles, but the biggest breakthrough turned out to be the comedy directed by Sylwester Chęciński and its sequels “Nie ma chęcich” and “Kochaj albo chęciński”.

Although he has since been in demand and appeared regularly, both on stage and on screen, his family was still his biggest priority. – In everyday life he wasn’t as cheerful as in the movies. I remember him as a strict father, demanding order and keeping a distance from his son – the actor’s firstborn. However, it cannot be denied that due to his numerous professional duties, Kowalski did not spend as much time with his family as he wished. He resented himself for it, but he also wanted to take advantage of his “five minutes” of fame.

Everything changed when, in 1982, the younger son, Maciej, died in a car accident. He was 26 years old then. The actor couldn’t forgive himself for not paying enough attention to him and eventually fell into depression, which made him give up his career. – We went with Jerzy Janicki to encourage him to play and get him out of depression – Andrzej Mularczyk, one of the creators of the series “Home”, in which Kowalski played one of the main roles. However, he did not want to hear about returning to work, firmly declaring that “it no longer interests him.” And in fact, he never returned to his profession. He died on October 27, 1990 at the age of 74 due to a stroke. If you feel like it, vote in our poll below.