A private burial at the Powązki Military Cemetery was preceded by a mass at the church of the chaplaincy for the Warsaw arts community. In an eulogy, actor Olgierd Łukaszewicz said that “Pszoniak did not recreate literature – he was a living theatre.”
Pszoniak died on October 21, aged 78. He suffered from cancer.
He is best remembered for his roles in Andrzej Wajda’s films, notably the Oscar-nominated Land of Promise, The Wedding, Korczak and Danton. The role of Moryc Welt in Land of Promise (1975) paved his way to an international career, with numerous performances in theatres in France and the UK.
He appeared in about 100 films, also working closely with such directors as Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Krzysztof Zanussi, Janusz Morgenstern and Janusz Majewski.
Born in Lviv (present day Ukraine) in 1942, he spent his youth in the town of Gliwice, southern Poland. Before entering the Drama School in Kraków, southern Poland, he acted in amateur theatres, learned music and took various odd jobs.
He made his theatrical debut at Kraków’s Stary Theatre in 1968. After several highly successful seasons there, with such great roles as that of Pyotr Verkhovensky in Wajda’s adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s The Possessed, he moved to Warsaw, where he became a leading star of the National and Powszechny Theatres.
He scored both critical and popular successes in such plays as John Osborne's Look Back in Anger, Gogol's The Government Inspector, Dale Wasserman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser.
In 1980 he left for France, where he lived for many years.
His honours included high Polish and French state distinctions (the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Reborn Poland, the Ordre national du Mérite and the Ordre des Artes et des Lettres).
A highly versatile performer, Pszoniak also developed a career in cabaret, taught acting, and was a gourmet cook, with a culinary book to his name.
(mk/pk)