It was forty years ago this week that Poland's greatest star of the silver screen passed on.
Zbigniew Cybulski was running to catch a train at Wroclaw Main Station when he slipped on the January ice and fell beneath an oncoming train.
Known as the 'Polish James Dean', Cybulski was a pin-up in his native country as well as a darling of the European film festival circuit. He first shot to fame as the raffish resistance fighter in Andrzej Wajda's 'Ashes and Diamonds' ( 1958), a role which won him a BAFTA nomination. He went on to star in countless Polish movies.
One of the actor's most cherished roles was as Alfons in the gothic 'Manuscript Found in the Saragossa', a favourite of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and psychedelic rockers The Grateful Dead. Set in the Napoleonic Wars, it was one of the few films in which the lead did not wear his trademark shades.
Cybulski remains a much-loved figure amongst film-lovers. However, whilst there are several statues across Poland, the most poignant tribute endures in Andrzej Wajda's 1968 film, 'Everything For Sale', which was directly based on the sudden loss of the actor.
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