Solskl Ludwik

(real name Ludwik Napoleon Sosnowski). Born Jan. 20,1855, in Gdów; died Jan. 19,1954, in Kraków. Polish actor, stage director, and theatrical figure. Son of a court official.

Solski made his stage debut in Kraków in 1876 and later acted in theaters in Warsaw, Ł ódz, Częstochowa, Lublin, Poznań, and other cities. He returned to the Kraków stage in 1883. From 1900 to 1905 he worked at the municipal theater in Lwów and from 1905 to 1913 he was administrative director of the J. Słowacki Theater in Kraków. From 1924 to 1939 he was an actor and stage director at the Theater of the People in Warsaw, where he also served as administrative director in 1931 and 1932 and from 1936 to 1938. In 1945, after the war, he resumed his career in Kraków, frequently touring in Warsaw and other cities. He appeared on the stage for the last time in 1954.

Solski was a supporter of the realist traditions of the Polish theater. Of his approximately 1,000 roles, the most significant were the title role in Słowacki’s Horsztyński, Mickiewicz in S. Wyspiański’s The Legion, Petruchio in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, and Harpagon in Moliere’s The Miser. In plays by A. Fredro, Solski played Ł atka in Life Annuity, the title role in Pan Jowialski, and Papkin and Dyndalski in Vengeance. He also played Father Piotr in Mickiewicz’s Forefathers’ Eve, Firs in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Perchikhin and the Actor in Gorky’s Smug Citizens and The Lower Depths, and Ivan the Terrible in A. K. Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan the Terrible.