He was born on 19th April, 1923, in Grudziądz. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Łódź. He was a theatre and film actor, as well as a film director. He was born into a family with acting traditions and his mother was actress Janina Staszewska-Ćwiklińska.
In 1948, he passed an external exam in acting, in front of a committee of the Polish Actors Association (ZASP). Before passing the official exam, he had already performed as an actor and dancer, as part of the acting team of Centralny Teatr MO. In the years 1946-49, he played on stage of Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdańsk. In 1949, following the successful acting exam, Jerzy Ćwikliński started working for the Stefan Jaracz Theatre in Łódź, where he continued to perform for the rest of his life. Initially, he was cast in the roles of romantic leads, but it was his talent for comedy that boosted his career on stage.
The actor was also no stranger to film roles. You can admire his talent in such film productions as ‘Pociąg / Night Train’ (1959), directed by jerzy Kawalerowicz, ‘Bokser / The Boxer’ by Julian Dziedzina, in which we see Daniel Olbrychski play the boxer Tolek Szczepaniak, or in ‘Człowiek, który zdemoralizował Hadleyburg / The Man who demoralized Hadleyburg ‘ (1967), directed by Jerzy Zarzycki, which was part the series ‘Komedie z pomyłek / The Comedy of Errors’.
Jerzy Ćwikliński was also an author of skits and cabaret songs. He died on 11th March, 1969, in Łódź. He was interred at the Old Cemetery at ul. Ogrodowa, in Łódź.
Selected Filmography
- 1959 – ‘Pociąg’, dir. by Jerzy Kawalerowicz
- 1965 – ‘Pierwszy pawilon / The First Pavilion’, dir. by Janusz Majewski
- 1966 – ‘Bokser / The Boxer’, dir. by Julian Dziedzina
- 1967 – ‘Stajnia na Salvatorze / Stall on Salvador’, dir. by Paweł Komorowski
- 1967 – ‘Człowiek, który zdemoralizował Hadleyburg / The Man who demoralized Hadleyburg’, dir. by Jerzy Zarzycki
