Famous Polish people in America

Samuel Goldwyn - well-known Hollywood motion picture producer and founding contributor of several motion picture studios (MGM)

Janusz Kaminski - two time Oscar winning cinematographer and film director who has photographed all of Steven Spielberg's movies since 1993's Schindler's List

Albert Warner - one of the founders of Warner Bros. Studios

Harry Warner - one of the founders of Warner Bros. and a major contributor to the development of the film industry

Jack Warner - President and driving force behind the highly successful development of Warner Brothers Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA

Sam Warner - co-founder and CEO of Warner Brothers film company

Billy Wilder - journalist, screenwriter, film director, and producer whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films

Roman Polanski, Film such as, 'Rosemary's Baby', 'Chinatown', The Pianist', "Oliver Twist', '' film-version of 'Macbeth', ''
husband of actress Sharon Tate (Charles Manson Family murdered her); Sorry to report but he has a checkered past due to unlawful sexual congress with a 13 yr old girl..from which he fled US imprisonment when he fled to Paris where he resides and works since 1978). He allegedly only worked in USA and only visited prior to his flight from US.

Pola Negri - film actress who achieved notoriety as a femme fatale in silent films between 1910s and 1930s

Gloria Swanson - Film actress of the Silent Era but made a huge comeback when she did 'Sunset Boulevard' (1950), former girlfriend of JFK's father, Joe Kennedy.

Loretta Swit - stage and television actress...best known for starring in 'MASH'

Jerry Orbach, (deceased late 2004) - Tony Award winning, theater, TV and Film actor (TV Series Law & Order, movies such as: 'Dirty Dancing', Woody Allen drama 'Crimes and Misdemeanors'; theater such as "The Fantasticks (1960), famous on Broadway for plays 'Guys and Dolls', Promises, Promises (Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical), the original productions of 'Chicago' (Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical) and '42nd Street'.

Stefanie Powers - stage and film actress and singer, 'The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.'; emmy-award winning TV show 'Hart to Hart'; also an outstanding polo player

Ross Martin- Polish-born TV and Film actor (Wild Wild West)

Ted Knight - (deceased 1986) - film and television actor in 'Mary Tyler Moore' show and other sitcoms
Carroll Baker - 60s-70s film actress and author
Christine Baranski - film and television actress
Pia Zadora - actress and singer

Politics:
George Pitaki, former 3-time Governor of State of NY

Wondering about George Lucas? Was it originally Lukasovic?

George Peppard was Polish.

Lucas and Peppard


George Peppard --- could find no lineage background info other than this:

"George Peppard, Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan. The son of building contractor George Peppard, Sr. and opera singer Vernelle Rohrer"

Lucas was not Polish though either parents lineage: "George Walton Lucas Jr. was born in Modesto, California to George Walton Lucas, Sr. (1913-1991) and Dorothy Ellinore Bomberger Lucas. His father, who was mainly of British and Swiss-German heritage, his mother was a member of a prominent Modesto family ... and was mainly of German and Scots-Irish heritage."

Oh & there's Sturgis, that famous Pole of A2K fame! Mustn't overlook him!:wink:

Much obliged.


And let's not forget Tara Lipinski, renowned figure skater, and Korczak Ziolkowski a sculptor of the Crazy Horse Memorial-a tribute to Oglala Sioux Chief Crazy Horse.


And in literature we have Stuart Dybek, Wolfe Kaufman and those Sci-fi guys George Zebrowski and Roger Zelazny.

Heading towards politics there is former governor of Alaska Frank Murkowski and his daughter Lisa Murkowski, who is not only the first Senator from Alaska who was born there, she is also the first female Senator from that state.


(and of course my distant relative Theodore 'Ted' Kaczynski...The Unabomber.)

OK, lots of names
Maybe I will put the missing ones in the Polish Wikipedia, which ranks 4th in the world after the English, French and German versions.

What about such people as: Andrzej Golota, Agnieszka Holland, Basia Trzetrzelewska, senator Mikulski (a woman), Jerzy Kosinski, Helena Modjeska (19th century actress)?

Of course, Polanski, Kaminski, Pola Negri are well known here.
Goldwyn or Warners are rather thought of as members of the Jewish Diaspora.

"They are Jewish Diaspora"

and so ...what if they are? The Warners emigrated for economic or politcal reasons.

I'm confused about your criteria in that case, as you asked for immigrants who emigrated from Poland for economic or political reasons. They did that.

I thought that you wanted Polish-American descended people from film industry? So then you are looking for Polish Catholic?

Hey!

What about Chai?

i've got some polish blood in me (mom's side of the family)...

So anyone who emigrated from Poland but was Jewish is not what you want to know about?

And that new actress Sobieski?
Kosinski, Polanski, both with Jewish roots, I guess, are treated as Poles here, mainly because they left the country rather late in their lives. But in the early 20th century, to go even deeper into history, there wasn't even an independent Poland (until 1918).

"Samuel Goldwyn, born in Poland in 1882" - from an American dictionary. Poland didn't exist back then. He was born in Warsaw, that is in Russia.

Many Polish Jews - survivors of the Holocaust - went to Israel and helped create the new country there. But no one in Poland thought about Israel as a second Polish state, especially that it was a political enemy.

Shimon Peres, the politician, born in the independent Poland between the wars, emigrated to the Palestine in 1934, aged 11. He is not treated as a Pole here, but as an Israeli.

Not being an expert on Polish history, I couldn't make such a distinction.

Well yes, of course you too.



(and even Region Philbis, though his baseball team interest is bothersome)

does it help any that i was originally a fan of the team in flushing meadows?

NOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!


Worst days of my life were in '86 with the Mets/Red Sux World Series...these are the two teams I most despise. The Redlies for obvious reasons and the Mutts for having deprived me a few times from going to see The Worlds Fair (once I was on the #7 I was convinced that I was headed to see The Worlds Fair). The Mutts are an inferior team which was created as a way of atoning for letting the Dodgers and Giants escape.



(and for the record, I rooted for The Mets in '86 but cursed them out at every turn)


(Wonder how that Red Sox hero Bill Buckner is doing these days. Let's all sing a song of praise again for Mookie Wilson)

Some other names
From Polish Wikipedia:

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Liberace, Charles Bronson, George Dzundza, Martha Stewart, Nina Siemaszko.

And John Gielgud in the UK.

ron jaworski -- former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst...

I've just found the complete list
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polscy_Amerykanie

Polish Americans

linda kozlowski -- crocodile dundee's blonde hottie...