Prominent Poles
Vladek Sheybal (Wladyslaw Rudolf Sheybal) film actor
Born: March 12, 1923, Zgierz (Poland)
Died: October 16, 1992, London (England)
From an interview. "You see, my name is Sheybal, which is not Polish name, which is not Armenian name, which comes from Scotland as a matter of fact. And I was brought up in about four or five languages. I was brought up in a terribly international family - as a matter of fact, I don't have a drop of Polish blood. I am mostly Armenian, a little bit of Scottish, a little bit of Austrian, and yet I am Polish actor and I arrived into this country as Polish actor,�� "I didn't know anything about it until one fantastic person, great friend of mine for several years, who was Bette Davis, and she said to me, "Honey, you have no chance whatsoever. You're ugly - everything is against you. I think that you should start playing threatening things and everybody will remember you." And I said, "How do I play threatening things? I'm such a loveable character." and she said, "You just narrow your eyes, you lower your voice and just whisper and make long pauses."��
Early days. Sheybal's father was a University professor. During WWII he became a member of the Polish underground, was captured twice by the Nazis but escaped from prison.
Acting career. He had a part in the 1957 film Kanal; directed by Andrzej Wajda before finding more lasting success in British films and television, usually cast in villainous roles. In 1960, he became joint director of a theater company based at the Little Theatre, Bromley, where his first production - Donald Howarth's All Good Children - was promoted to Hampstead Theatre Club. In 1962, on Sean Connery's request, he took the role of the villainous Kronsteen in the James Bond film From Russia With Love, and this led to a career of similarly creepy roles as middle-European or Soviet villains, in episodes of The Man In Room 17 (twice), The Saint, Danger Man, Strange Report and The Champions. In the cinema, he was particularly liked by Ken Russell who used him in the award-winning film of D.H. Lawrence's Women In Love (1970), in which he played the artist-sculptor cavorting in the snow with Glenda Jackson; The Music Lovers (1970); and The Boyfriend (1971). Other movie credits include: Casino Royale, Billion Dollar Brain, Deadfall, Mosquito Squadron, Puppet On A Chain, The Last Valley, The Wind and the Lion, The Lady Vanishes and The Jigsaw Man. TV credits include: Z-Cars, The Troubleshooters, The Baron, Callan, UFO (in which he had a recurring role as Dr. Jackson), The New Avengers, The Supernatural, Shogun and Smiley's People. More recently, Sheybal had forged a second acting career for himself in France. Leaving his villainous roles behind him, he found a niche playing middle-aged romantics in love with much younger women. .Sheybal went on to star and play in over 60 films. His final film appearance was in: Double X: The Name Of The Game. His last screen appearance was in The Bill episode Sympathy For The Devil in September 1992.
He died in 1992 from a ruptured aortic aneurysm.
Sources:
This article uses, among others, material from the Wikipedia article "Vladek Sheybal" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. :
Wikipedia
supplemented with information from:
Interview FAB#8
This is an interview with Vladek Sheybal which originally appeared in issue #8 (December 1992) of FAB, the magazine produced by the official Gerry Anderson fan club Fanderson. This interview was conducted by Tim Mallett and Glenn Pearce, and is reproduced here with permission from Fanderson.
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Prominent Poles
