Joanna Pacula
Encyclopedia
Early life
Pacula was born in Tomaszów LubelskiTomaszów Lubelski
Tomaszów Lubelski is a town in south-eastern Poland with 20,261 inhabitants . Situated in the Lublin Voivodeship , previously in Zamość Voivodeship . It is the capital of Tomaszów Lubelski County.-History:...
, Poland to a pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...
mother and an engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
father. In 1979, she graduated from the Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Theatre Academy
Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Theatre Academy
Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Theatre Academy is a public higher education institution in Warsaw, Poland. It's focus is on the theatre arts.It was originally founded in Łódź in 1946, and moved to Warsaw in 1949. It continues the tradition of the National Institute of Theatre Arts founded in Łódź...
.
Career
Pacula joined Warsaw Dramatic Theatre where she acted until 1981. She started her career playing in productions of Shakespeare's Romeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
and As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
. She also found work in a handful of films, including Krzysztof Zanussi
Krzysztof Zanussi
Krzysztof Zanussi, is a Polish producer and film director.He is a professor of European film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland where he conducts a summer workshop...
's Barwy ochronne/Camouflage (1977).
In 1981, Pacula was caught in Paris when communist authorities in Poland declared martial law. In 1982 she eventually emigrated to the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where she has specialized in playing European temptresses since her feature debut opposite William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
in Gorky Park
Gorky Park (film)
Gorky Park is a 1983 film based on the novel Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith. It was directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay by Dennis Potter ....
(1983), for which she was recommended by Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
. She played the part of the exotic beauty in numerous American TV series and movies, including the Holocaust drama Escape From Sobibor
Escape from Sobibor
Escape from Sobibor is a 1987 British made-for-TV film which aired on CBS. It deals with the extermination camp at Sobibor, the site of the most successful uprising by Jewish prisoners of German extermination camps...
(CBS, 1987), The Kiss
The Kiss (1988 film)
The Kiss is a horror/thriller film released in 1988 and set in the United States and Africa. The Kiss is a late occult-horror-voodoo style film starring Joanna Pacula, Meredith Salenger and Nicholas Kilbertus....
(1988), E.A.R.T.H. Force
E.A.R.T.H. Force
E.A.R.T.H. Force is an American action adventure television series starring Gil Gerard. The series aired 3 episodes on CBS from September 16, 1990, to September 29, 1990, before being canceled due to low ratings...
(CBS, 1990), and the TV series, The Colony (ABC, 1996). She also starred in Lewis Gilbert
Lewis Gilbert
Lewis Gilbert CBE is an English film director, producer and screenwriter.-Early life:He was the son of music hall performers, and spent his early years travelling with his parents, and watching the shows from the side of the stage. He first performed on-stage at the age of 5, when asked to drive a...
's Not Quite Jerusalem
Not Quite Paradise
Not Quite Paradise is a 1985 drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert. It is also known by the alternative title Not Quite Jerusalem.-External links:...
in 1984.
She was featured in Marked for Death
Marked for Death
Marked for Death is a 1990 action film directed by Dwight H. Little. It stars Steven Seagal as John Hatcher, a former DEA troubleshooter. Upon moving back to his home town, Hatcher finds it taken over by a gang of vicious Jamaican drug dealers, led by Screwface.The film is widely considered by...
(1990) as an expert on Jamaican voodoo and gangs; in the Italian erotic thriller Husbands And Lovers (1992) as a free spirited adultress (which featured a rather controversial bare-bottom spanking
Spanking
Spanking refers to the act of striking the buttocks of another person to cause temporary pain without producing physical injury. It generally involves one person striking the buttocks of another person with an open hand. When an open hand is used, spanking is referred to in some countries as...
scene, a first in a mainstream film); Tombstone
Tombstone (film)
Tombstone is a 1993 American action film set in the Old West directed by George P. Cosmatos, along with uncredited directorial efforts by actor Kurt Russell and writer Kevin Jarre. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Jarre....
(1993) as Doc Holliday's lover, Kate (also known as Big Nose Kate
Big Nose Kate
Mary Katherine Horony Cummings , known as Big Nose Kate, was the Hungarian-born long-time companion and common-law wife of fabled gambler and gunfighter Doc Holliday in the American Old West....
and Mary Catherine Haroney, born November 7, 1850); in The Haunted Sea (1997); and in the movie Virus
Virus (1999 film)
Virus is a 1999 science fiction-horror film directed by visual effects artist John Bruno and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin and Donald Sutherland...
(1999), playing a Russian scientist. She currently resides in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
.
Milestones
- Chosen by PeoplePeople (magazine)In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world (1990). - Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1984" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 36.