Roman Polanski: Life as an award-winning filmmaker and fugitive
Officials in the United States are formally seeking the extradition of acclaimed film director Roman Polanski from Poland.
Here is a look at the life and career of the director, producer, writer and actor, who is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers.*
Rajmund Roman Thierry Polanski was born in Paris on August 18, 1933.
His family returned to Poland in 1937 and Polanski's parents were imprisoned in different Nazi concentration camps. His mother eventually died in Auschwitz.
Polanski survived the war and became a film director. His first feature-length film, 1962's Knife In The Water, was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language film.
He moved to Hollywood in 1968 and made his American debut with the successful psychological horror Rosemary's Baby.
The following year his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by members of the Charles Manson cult at Polanski's Benedict Canyon home near Los Angeles.
Tate, a 26-year-old actress, was only two weeks from giving birth.
He moved back to Europe but in 1974 returned to the US to make the Oscar-nominated film Chinatown with Jack Nicholson.
But controversy has surrounded Polanski since his arrest in Los Angeles in 1977 for the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl.
From filmmaker to fugitive
The director, then 43, was accused of raping teenager Samantha Geimer after a photo shoot for Vogue magazine.
In a memoir published in 2013, Geimer described how she was made to drink champagne and was given a sleeping pill before being assaulted by Polanski in the house of Nicholson.
Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor, or statutory rape, avoiding a trial.
He was detained for 42 days of a 90-day psychiatric evaluation as part of a plea bargain, but he fled the country just hours before his final sentencing in 1978, believing the judge hearing the case would overrule the deal and put him in jail.
Polanski eludes extradition
Since then, US officials have regularly pressed for Polanski's extradition to no avail.
In 2009 at age 76 he was due to be awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival but was arrested and held in a detention centre for 67 days.
The arrest followed a request by the US that Switzerland apprehend Polanski, but he was freed in 2010.
Polanski's legal team argued his US conviction should be annulled on the grounds of misconduct, claiming the judge who heard the case had improperly colluded with prosecutors.
In October 2014, the film director was questioned by Polish prosecutors after US authorities attempted to have him arrested for sex offences when he travelled to Warsaw for the opening of a Jewish museum.
Polanski presented himself to the district prosecutor's office in Krakow where he was questioned, state media reported.
He was released after the prosecutor "deemed it not necessary to proceed with the arrest" in relation to the extradition request.
Polanski's lawyers recently requested a new hearing to try to close the case on procedural grounds, but a Los Angeles judge refused the application.
In January 2015, Poland received a formal request from the US to extradite Polanski.
A Polish court will examine the request but it will be up to the justice ministry to give the final go-ahead.
Award-winning career continued
But while the US sought Polanski's return, he continued to make films such as Tess (1979), which was awarded several Oscars, but during the 1980s and 1990s, his work became intermittent and unmatched in calibre to his earlier films.
However, The Pianist (2002) – a WWII drama about a Jewish-Polish musician - won a collection of international film awards including three Oscars, among them best director.
Polanski did not attend the awards ceremony as he would have been arrested, but received a standing ovation from most of those present in the theatre in Los Angeles.
In 2009 at age 76 he was due to be awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival but was arrested and held in a detention centre for 67 days.
In 2011, he was able to travel to Zurich from his home in France to receive the award.
His most recent films include The Ghost Writer (2010) and Carnage (2011), a comedy-drama starring Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet.
His latest film is an adaptation of the award-winning play Venus In Fur, starring his wife Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric.
