CineScope
Jerzy Kosiński picture

Jerzy Kosiński

Acting
Known For

57 Years Old

Jerzy Nikodem Kosiński , born Józef Lewinkopf, was a Polish-American novelist and two-time President of the American Chapter of P.E.N., who wrote primarily in English. For several decades, Kosinski was famous as a wit, a great raconteur, and a media celebrity. His first three novels were big hits. However, in June 22, 1982, "Jerzy Kosinski's Tainted Words," an article by Geoffrey Stokes and Eliot Fremont-Smith in The Village Voice, accused Jerzy Kosinski of plagiarism and dishonesty. 'The Painted Bird' was widely considered to be autobiographical; the Voice showed that this shocking tale about a brutalized childhood during the Jewish Holocaust was not after all about Jerzy, who actually lived rather comfortably during the war years. 'Being There', which was adapted as a successful film, was shown to have been plagiarized from an earlier Polish novel. Jerzy Kosinski appeared in two feature films a few documentaries and a large number of talk shows. His parents, Moses (Mojzesz) and Elzbieta (Liniecka) Lewinkopf, were well off, resourceful and cultured—though Elzbieta was an amateur musician, not a concert pianist as her son maintained, and Moses was a manager skilled in languages but not a professor of linguistics. The Lewinkopfs, secularized Jews, recognized the Nazi threat to their native Poland, and in late 1939 they acquired papers changing their last name to Kosinski and the father's first name to Mieczyslaw. Kosinski was their only biological child.

Born

Lódz, Poland, Russian Empire [now Lódz, Lódzkie, Poland] on 14th June 1933

Died

3rd May 1991

All Credits

The Dick Cavett Show Image
The Dick Cavett Show
Self - Guest
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Image
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self
Reds Image
Reds
Grigory Zinoviev
A Fool and His Money Image
A Fool and His Money
Bettler
The Statue of Liberty Image
The Statue of Liberty
Self - Writer
Sex, Lies and Jerzy Kosinski Image
Sex, Lies and Jerzy Kosinski
Television: The Ultimate Drug Image
Television: The Ultimate Drug
Self / Author
Łódź Ghetto Image
Łódź Ghetto
Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski
The Painted Boy Image
The Painted Boy
Self/Writer