Roman Polanski did not have an easy childhood, which has influenced his way of telling stories. He grew up as a beggar on the street in a Krakow ghetto when his parents disappeared, after living for a few months in a bunker in Warsaw. Later he would live on charity in different host families. His mother would die along with several relatives at the hands of the Nazis in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
In 1944 at the age of 11 he is reunited with his father and a year later he began his career as an actor, first acting in the boy scouts and later as a radio and theater actor.
At the age of 16 he suffers a assassination attempt at the hands of a criminal.
That same year he works at the puppet Theater with the Groteska company in the play “El circo de Tarabumba”.
In 1953 he made his debut as an actor on the big screen with the film "Three stories" and two years later he got the leading role in the Andrzej Wajda film "Generation".
That same year 1955, he enrolled in the Lodz State Film School and shoots his first job, the short film “La bicicleta”.
In 1957 he made three more short films "La silencio", "Asesinato" and "Aguafiestas" and works for the first time in a professional filmThis is the film "Koniec nocy" by Andrzej Munk where he plays the role of assistant director.
In 1958 his short film "Two men and a closet" is awarded at the Brussels Festival.
The following year he made two feature films "The Lamp" and "When the Angels Fall", the latter presented it a year later at the San Sebastian Festival.
In 1961 he made two short films “El gordo y el flaco” and “Los Mammals”, the first in France and the second in his native Poland. Also that year he made his first feature film "The Knife in the Water". His debut feature wins the Grand Prize at the Tours Festival and at the Venice Film Festival wins the FIPRESCI Award, and also gets the Oscar nomination for best foreign film.
In Amsterdam he shoots “The diamond necklace”, Short film from 1963.
In 1964 he shot "Repulsion" British film that just launched him to fame, since with it he won the Silver Bear and the FIPRESCI Award at the Berlinale the following year. Also in 1964 he filmed with the French Claude Chabrol and Jean-
Luc Godard, the Italian Ugo Gregoretti, the Japanese Hiromichi Horikawa the episode film "The most famous scams in the world."
"Dead End", his 1965 film, was filmed in the UK just like his previous film. The film showed that the Polish director was on his way to establishing himself as one of the greatest of his generation. The tape got the Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival.
Two years later, back in the UK, he shoots “Dance of the vampires”, A hilarious horror comedy that parodies vampire movies.
In 1968 he filmed for the first time in the United States. His first film on American soil was "The Devil's Seed." The film brought him the David de Donatello Award for Best Foreign Director and Mia Farrow for Best Foreign Actress. Ruth Gordon received the Oscar and the Golden Globe for best supporting actress. He also gets the Oscar nomination as a screenwriter, a prize that he does not end up receiving.
In 1969, one more traumatic event would mark the life of the filmmaker. Sharon Tate, his wife of barely a year, is murdered in her own home by followers of Charles Manson. This fact makes Roman Polanski leave the country and settle in Paris.