Eugeniusz Bodo (born Bohdan Eugène Junod; 28 December 1899 7 October 1943) was a film director, producer, singer, pianist and one of the most popular Polish actors and comedians of the interwar period. He starred in some of the most popular Polish film productions of the 1930s, including His Excellency, The Shop Assistant (Polish: Jego ekscelencja subiekt), Czy Lucyna to dziewczyna?, and Pieśniarz Warszawy.

A skilled singer, he became an icon of Polish musical comedy and a "symbol of Polish commercial cinema". In the late 1930s he also became a successful entrepreneur – co-owner of a successful film studio, café, and producers' company. Arrested by the Soviet NKVD in the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, he perished in the Soviet Gulag.

Biography

Bohdan Eugène Junod was born on 28 December 1899. His birthplace is uncertain; sources name Warsaw, Łódź, and Geneva, Switzerland. His mother was Jadwiga Anna Dorota née Dylewska. His father, Teodor Junod, was a Swiss citizen who moved to Russian-held Poland and in 1903 settled in Łódź. There he opened a revue-cinema, Urania – the first permanent cinema theatre in that city. It was there that Bodo made his stage debut at the age of six. Always appearing well-dressed, in 1936 Bodo was awarded the title of King of Style by the readers of Film magazine.

In 1931 Bodo became a co-founder of the B.W.B. film studio, and, in 1933, he opened a private producers' company "Urania", named after his fathers' cinema in Łódź. His best-known film was Neighbors (Piętro wyżej) (1937), which he wrote and produced himself. By that time his popularity reached far beyond the borders of Poland, to the extent that Yugoslavian press dubbed him Polish Maurice Chevalier. Bodo himself toured Germany promoting Polish-made feature films on that market.

250px|thumb|Eugeniusz Bodo after arrest by NKVD. Last photo

alt=|thumb|333x333px|The symbolic grave of Eugeniusz Bodo at the [[Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.]]

During the invasion of Poland he organized recitals for the Polish soldiers and civilians during the Siege of Warsaw. He then fled to Lwów, where he joined the Tea-Jazz band led by Henryk Wars. With that troupe he toured the Soviet Union in 1940, he also published a record containing Russian-language versions of his songs. Simultaneously he started efforts to leave the Soviet Union using his Swiss passport. However, shortly after the German invasion of the Soviet Union he was arrested by the NKVD and sentenced to 5 years of lager/labor camp as a result of NKVD Interrogation carried out by NKVD chief Pyotr Fedotov signed on 20 October 1942 (source: documents sent to Poland by the Russian Red Cross in 1992). Initially imprisoned in Butyrki prison in Moscow, he was not released following the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement as the Soviet authorities argued that he was not a Pole but rather a Swiss citizen and hence the Amnesty for Polish citizens in the Soviet Union did not apply to him. Eugeniusz Bodo starved to death on his way to a remote Soviet gulag camp, in Kotlas. He was declared dead on 7 October 1943.

His whereabouts remained unknown for another 50 years. Before the collapse of communism in 1989, the Soviets gave the false version that Bodo had been murdered by the Germans in 1941. This version is repeated even in some modern publications. It was only in 1991 that the Soviet authorities revealed his fate.

In October 2011 in Kotlas, where he died, a cenotaph in his honor was unveiled at a local cemetery.

Films

  • Rivals (as Geniuś) (1925)
  • Czerwony błazen (1926)
  • Uśmiech losu (as the dancer in a cabaret) (1927)
  • Człowiek o błękitnej duszy (as the sculptor) (1929)
  • Police Chief Tagiejew(as Markovskiy) (1929)
  • Kult ciała (as Franciszek, Czesław's helper) (1930)
  • Na Sybir (as the worker) (1930)
  • Niebezpieczny romans (the main villain) (1930)
  • The Beauty of Life (1930) (as Roszow) (1930)
  • Wiatr od morza (as Otto) (1930)
  • Bezimienni bohaterowie (as the police captain Szczerbic) (1932)
  • Głos pustyni (as sheik Abdullah) (1932)
  • Jego ekscelencja subiekt (Jurek, the title role) (1933)
  • Zabawka (Kuźma, son of the forest worker) (1933)
  • Czarna perła (as Stefan) (1934)
  • Is Lucyna a Girl? (as Stefan Żarnowski) (1934)
  • Kocha, lubi, szanuje (as pharmacy terminator Władysław) (1934)
  • Pieśniarz Warszawy (as Julian) (1934)
  • Jaśnie pan szofer (as Boratyński) (1935)
  • American Adventure (as Paweł) (1936)
  • Bohaterowie Sybiru (as Władek) (1936)
  • Książątko (as Tadeusz Rolski) (1937)
  • Neighbors (Piętro wyżej) (as Henryk Pączek, radio speaker) (1937)
  • Skłamałam (as Karol Borowicz) (1937)
  • Paweł i Gaweł (as Paweł) (1938)
  • Robert i Bertrand (as Bertrand) (1938)
  • Strachy (as Zygmunt Modecki) (1938)
  • Za winy niepopełnione (as Torence, Holski's friend and partner) (1938)

Notes

References

  • Eugeniusz Bodo at the Internet Polish Movie Database

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