Elzbieta Czyzewska, 1938-2010

AOP is truly heartbroken today to hear of the death of our friend Elzbieta, who our audiences will remember from the memorable characters she created and her seductive Eastern European purr in Darkling.

One of my fondest memories was being with her on the 2007 Darkling tour as she returned to Poland for the first time in many years, and over 35 years from when she was expelled from her country where she was a famous actress. We waited at a checkpoint in a stifling hot Cold War era bus as the guards collected our passports. Despite her fame they did not bat an eye, and no one seemed to notice her quiet sadness at the ignoble lack of fanfare. I had her stand up in the aisle of the bus and pose for a picture. She immediately turned into the coquettish young beauty that I think she always was in her heart, held her head high, and looked down seductively.  (You can see the picture below.)

We will miss her elegant, non-stop smoking, her vampiric dahhhling of a speaking voice, and her biting humor. Goodbye, sweet duchess.

- Matt Gray, AOP Producing Director

"In the 1960s Ms. Czyzewska was, quite simply, the most popular actress in Poland, creating, in comic and dramatic roles, a consistent persona that was both fiercely feminine and fiercely independent." - New York Times

Read the New York Times obit for Elzbieta.