Adam Brodzisz, Polish matinee idol

 

Brodzisz (originally Brudzin) was one of the most popular actors in pre-war Polish cinema.  In the 1920s he won a 'Photogenic Faces' contest and his career took off from there.  He graduated from the (Bieganski) Film Institute  in 1927, and in 1931 created a production company with Michel Waszynski and Eugeniusz Bodo called BWB.

When Poland ceased to exist and became the General Government under the Nazis, he worked as a waiter at Napoleon's Capital Cafe.  During the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 he commanded a working brigade fighting the occupation, nick-named 'Bonzo'.

After the war he found the new Polish cinema under Communism more difficult and pursued live theatre into the late 1950s.  In 1961 he and his wife left the east block and never returned to Poland after guest appearances in the United States.  He died in Desert Hot Springs California in 1986, but was repatriated and interred in Rakowicki cemetery in Krakow.