Polish Actress Elzbieta Czyzewska Dies at 72

Polish actress Elzbieta Czyzewska has died in Manhattan at the age of seventy-two, The New York Times reports.  The cause of death was esophageal cancer, according to Czyewska's friend Nancy Weber.

Czyzewska was a popular actress in Poland in the 1960s, known for films such as 'Erotique.'  After starring in Arthur Miller's AFTER THE FALL in Warsaw, she married New York Times correspondant David Halberstam.  Halberstam was later expelled from Poland for writing an article about anti-Semitism in the country, and Czyzewska also found herself unwelcome there, according to the Times.  Czyzewska emigrated to the United States in the 1960s.

In the United States, Czyzewska's stage credits included a highly praised performance in THE POSSESSED, which also featured an unknown Meryl Streep and Christopher Durang, at the Yale Repertory Theater in 1974, as well as various off-Broadway plays.  She appeared on film in 'Putney Swope,' 'Running on Empty,' 'Cadillac Man,' and 'A Kiss Before Dying,' among others, and on television in programs including 'Sex and the City,' 'Third Watch,' 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent,' and 'Damages.' Although she never achieved stardom in the United States, she was very important in New York's Polish artist community, the Times reports.

Czyzewska is survived by a niece, Magdalena Komorek.