It was said that she was statuesquely beautiful, extremely talented, but quite secretive. She was characterized by elegance, restraint, distance from the world, diligence and persistence.
” Her extraordinary beauty and unique hair color predestined her for the roles of haughty queens and all cruel and mysterious seductresses,” Andrzej Łapicki said about her.
And so do the characters Aleksandra Śląska she acted in films and in the theater. Viewers remember her famous roles in… “Passengers” and “Queen Bona”. How did her career start?
She was born on November 4, 1925 in Katowice. Her real name was Ola Wąsik. She was the daughter of a member of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic – Edmund Wąsik. The future star was very shy, so her relatives were surprised by her decision to become an actress.
In 1946, she became a student of the Drama School at the Theater. Juliusz Słowacki in Krakow. She was the only Silesian at the university and was referred to as “the Silesian”. The school’s lecturer, Wiesław Górecki, thought it was hers family name – Wąsik – is not suitable for a poster. This is how she became Aleksandra Śląska.
She played many film and theater roles. She made her debut as a German in… “The Final Stage” (1947) by Wanda Jakubowska. The script based on the memories of prisoners of the Auschwitz Birkenau camp was a semi-documentary story about the fate of women in the German camp in Oświęcim.
She was then seen in films such as “Five from Barska Street” and “Chopin’s Youth” Alexander Ford, “Loop” Wojciech Jerzy Has, in which she appeared with Gustaw Holoubek or “Their Everyday Day” Aleksander Ścibor-Rylski, where she appeared alongside Zbigniew Cybulski.
Yours her most outstanding cinema role was in Andrzej Munk’s film “The Passenger”. Later, she said that the character of the German SS officer Liza unleashed acting skills that she did not know she had.
“It’s an unexpected discovery for me and not even entirely pleasant,” she admitted.
She was so authentic that the audience confused the acting with the truth. The star received letters with insultsit was rumored that she had collaborated with the enemy during the war. She was very upset about these accusations.
After “The Passenger”, Śląska withdrew from the cinema for a long time. Work in the theater, radio and dubbing became her springboard. She took part in 150 radio plays, and with her deep voice and characteristic hoarseness she was able to convey all the nuances of the “played” characters. She dubbed Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, and a letter of congratulations was sent to her by Glenda Jackson, the actress who played the title role in the series “Elizabeth, Queen of England”.
The last great creation Aleksandra Śląska was a role Queen Bona in Janusz Majewski’s series from 1980.
“Only she could play the emotions of a girl 30 years younger so realistically. Her character changes to become a real monarch before the eyes of the audience,” said the director.
“I am absorbed in investigating the psychological complexity of each character. Whether a classical or contemporary work, everywhere a person has the right to be complicated” – said Aleksandra Śląska in one of the few interviews.
“Śląska was characterized by wonderful craftsmanship, awareness of choices and excellent repeatability,” said Krystyna Janda, who shared a theater dressing room with her for several years.
Aleksandra Śląska she starred in over 30 films and series in total. She took acting extremely seriously, but cinema was never a priority for her. She was above all “queen of the stage” – actress of the Contemporary Theater and then of the Ateneum Theater in Warsaw. There she appeared in dozens of plays, creating great acting roles. There, on stage, she met such outstanding actors as Zbigniew Cybulski, Bogumił Kobiela, Roman Wilhelmi, Tadeusz Łomnicki.
Aleksandra Śląska married twice. Her first partner was Czesław Górski, an oncologist, with whom she had a son, Szczęsny. The couple met before their high school final exams. The marriage did not last because the actress was absorbed in her professional life and theater career. She couldn’t live with the doctor.
She found true love at the Ateneum Theater in Warsaw, where she joined in 1956. There she met her second and last husband – director Janusz Warmiński, and later theater director. The couple shared a passion for the stage, which they called their second home.
The artist died of cancer on September 18, 1989. She worked on stage almost until the very end.