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Andrzej Seweryn

Andrzej Seweryn is a Polish-French actor and director whose career moves between Polish cinema, French theatre and international screen work. Born in Heilbronn, Germany, on 25 April 1946, he returned to Poland with his parents after the Second World War and was raised in Warsaw. He graduated from the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw in 1968, then joined Teatr Ateneum. That same year, Seweryn helped organize a student protest against the communist authorities’ banning of Kazimierz Dejmek’s production of Dziady. He later spent five months in prison for distributing leaflets opposing the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. This political commitment forms an important part of the path that eventually took him beyond Poland. During the 1970s, Seweryn became widely known through his work with director Andrzej Wajda, appearing in The Promised Land, Without Anesthesia and Man of Iron. His performance in Wajda’s Dyrygent earned him the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 1980 Berlin International Film Festival. After martial law was imposed in Poland in 1981, Seweryn remained in France, where he established a substantial stage career. He began performing with the Comédie-Française in 1993 and became a full member in 1995, only the third non-French performer in the theatre’s history. Across more than 50 films, Seweryn has worked largely in Polish, French and German productions. International audiences may recognize him as Julian Scherner in Schindler’s List or as Maximilien Robespierre in La Révolution française. Later roles continued to show his reach: his portrayal of painter Zdzisław Beksiński in The Last Family won Best Actor at the 2016 Locarno International Film Festival, followed by acting honors from the Polish Academy and the Gdynia Film Festival. In 2023, he received the Polish Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Śubuk, adding another chapter to a screen career defined by historical figures, demanding dramatic roles and work across national cinemas.