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Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski was born in France to a Polish father and Russian mother in 1933. His family moved back to Krakow in Poland in 1936 where they were living when World War II broke out. His father survived the concentration camps, but his mother was killed in Auschwitz. He attended the Polish film school at Lodz and graduated in 1959, at the same time he married his first wife. He divorced in 1961 and married his second wife Sharon Tate in 1968. Tate was brutally murdered – while eight months pregnant – by the Manson Family in 1969. In 1977 he became embroiled in a sex scandal after was accused of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. As part of a plea bargain the charges were reduced to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Awaiting his sentence Polanski fled to London then Austria and spent the rest of life in countries which do not have extradition treaties with the United States. In September 2009 he went to Switzerland to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Zurich Film Festival but was arrested at the airport due to a long-standing warrant for his arrest

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US asks Swiss to extradite Polanski Black cabs, red buses and minis: it must be ... Berlin Sex charges against me a travesty, says Polanski

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Latest articles

Drop Polanski case and leave me alone, says his victim

27.10.09
Roman Polanski's sex attack victim has called for the case against the film director to be dropped... more

US asks Swiss to extradite Polanski

23.10.09
United States has formally asked Switzerland to extradite film director Roman Polanski, who fled sentencing in California on child sex charges in 1977... more

Swiss court rejects Roman Polanski's bid for release

20.10.09
NEW: Swiss court rejects film director Roman Polanski's appeal against detention pending extradition to the US for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977... more

Portrait of a leading lady: Monica Bellucci

16.10.09
Monica Bellucci and her actor husband Vincent Cassel are known in France as 'Les Glamours'. From a youth spent modelling for Bruce Weber to a film career that spans art-house grit and Hollywood blockbuster gloss, she hasn't put a high-heeled foot wrong... more

Polanski’s health ‘failing’ in prison

12.10.09
Supporters of Roman Polanski raised fears about his health today as doctors visited the cell where he is being held on a child sex charges... more

Take 'history' by artists with a big pinch of salt

09.10.09
Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall is a worthy winner of the Booker Prize but qualms have already been raised by some critics over the novel’s disservice to history... more

Polanski bail plea refused

06.10.09
... more

Swiss court to rule on fate of Polanski 'within next weeks'

29.09.09
Roman Polanski's lawyers begin moves to have director released from Swiss custody - as he attempts to avoid extradition for having sex with an underage girl... more

It’s much too late to call Roman Polanski to account

29.09.09
There's nothing artistic about drugging, raping or sodomising a young girl. The details vary depending which version of Roman Polanski's 1977 seduction of a 13-year-old actress you read... more

Interpol had 'red notice' on Polanski for years

29.09.09
... more

Polanski’s wife calls on Hollywood to back his fight against extradition

28.09.09
Roman Polanski’s wife said today she was 'outraged' by his arrest and vowed to fight American attempts to extradite him... more

Please don’t tell me my hero has feet of clay

25.09.09
I am in mourning for one of my favourite Sixties pop songs, California Dreamin’, by The Mamas and the Papas ... more

Manson follower to die in jail after her parole bid is denied

03.09.09
A terminally ill Charles Manson follower who admitted stabbing actress Sharon Tate 40 years ago has lost what was likely to be her last bid for freedom... more

Fact is the new fiction in film

18.05.09
Their films cost a pittance but can earn millions – no wonder documentary-makers are on a roll.... more

Time to face the Nazi music

22.04.09
Two plays by Ronald Harwood re-examine the moral responsibility of the musicians who danced to Hitler’s tune... more

Prison picture shows Charles Manson 40 years on

19.03.09
A new photograph of Charles Manson has been released for the first time in almost four decades, revealing that the mass murderer is now bald with a grey beard... more

Black cabs, red buses and minis: it must be ... Berlin

12.02.09
Street scenes of London have been recreated in Berlin for the filming of Roman Polanski's new film because the director cannot enter Britain... more

Sex charges against me a travesty, says Polanski

03.12.08
Three decades after fleeing the United States over a sex case involving a 13-year-old girl, Roman Polanski has asked a Los Angeles court to dismiss the charges ... more

A free speech crusade we should all be proud to join

12.11.08
Saudi bankers and Russian oligarchs love London, and not only for its chichi boutiques... more

Learning to be a single dad in Quiet Chaos

23.10.08
Quiet Chaos is understated and restrained, perhaps too much so. But Nanni Moretti gives a fine performance.... more

Frank Sinatra, the Queen and me, by Christopher Biggins

30.08.08
He was Jeremy Irons's best man, Diana's confidant and Sinatra's bodyguard. But the actor says even being ultimate friend to the stars couldn't save him from bankruptcy.... more

What's new on television this autumn? Austen, Hardy and Dickens

20.08.08
You could call them credit crunch classics - reliable dramas for worrying times... more

Scream! Pregnant Jessica Alba goes psycho as she recreates the horror movie classics

20.02.08
Some might say it's an unusual thing to do while pregnant with your first child. But clearly Jessica Alba is prepared to put aside her personal feelings for her art, as the actress took on the iconic roles of horror movie heroines Rosemary's Baby star Mia Farrow, and Psycho's Janet Leigh for a magazine photoshoot ... more

Why I'm bringing Brando to the West End

10.08.07
Steven Berkoff, one of British theatre's most vocal and unpredictable figures, talks about why he thinks he can now turn the iconic Fifties film On the Waterfront into a stage success.... more

Screeching all the way over the top

09.08.07
The absurd plot of Rush Hour III has plenty of bang-bang but very little blood, says Derek Malcolm.... more

Best events for the Bank Holiday weekend

02.05.07
There's plenty to keep you occupied over the long weekend, including a May Day festival, a new Star Wars exhibition and a Bank Holiday BBQ at Camden's Proud Galleries.... more

£35,000 for snap of an old Stone

14.11.06
A photograph of Keith Richards is expected to make up to £35,000 when it goes under the hammer.... more

More related topics: Roman Polanski and

  • Facts
  • He was born Rajmund Roman Liebling.
  • After Sharon Tate’s death he gave away all his possessions because everything reminded him of her.
  • In 2004 he sued Vanity Fair over claims that he made sexual advances towards a young model as he travelled to Sharon Tate’s funeral.
  • He married Emmanuelle Seigner in 1989 and has two children with her.

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