Famous half-Poles/ part Poles

[varsovian]

... like Bonnie Prince Charlie, for instance?

[usenetposts]

What about them? And how was he half-Polish?

[ianek70]

In 1719 Prince James Stuart married Clementine, granddaughter of Johnny
Sobieski. He then poagered her and lo! A bonnie baby prince was born unto them.

[usenetposts]

ianek70 napisał:

> In 1719 Prince James Stuart married Clementine, granddaughter of Johnny
> Sobieski. He then poagered her and lo! A bonnie baby prince was born unto
them.


Cool! I had no idea he was Polish.

[ianek70]

usenetposts napisał:

> ianek70 napisał:
>
> > In 1719 Prince James Stuart married Clementine, granddaughter of Johnny
> > Sobieski. He then poagered her and lo! A bonnie baby prince was born unto
>
> them.
>
>
> Cool! I had no idea he was Polish.

All European royal families are so inbred that every prince or princess alive
today could probably claim Sobieski as an ancestor.
Sociologists call it 'class solidarity', but if your gene pool consists of 114
cousins, then after a few generations you end up with Prince Charles' ears or
Princess Di's brain.

[sobieski010]

Marie Curie, Chopin...
Lepper, Giertych (half mad)

[minimus]

> Marie Curie...

????
which part was non Polish? Reminds me of Sexmisja BTW.

[sobieski010]

Her husband was French, but I guess that does not count
What about Piłsudski? Some might say he was half Lithuanian (a tricky subject in
Poland) but that depends if you think Vilnius/Wilno was Polish or Lithuanian...

[ms.jones]

king Canute, his mother was a daughter of Mieszko I

the Warner brothers
Juliette Binoche
Scarlett Johansson
Stanley Kubrick
Sidney Pollack
Tracey Ullman
Stephanie Powers

Polish born Jews, lots eg Arthur Rubinstein and Isaak Singer.

[ejmarkow]

Pat Benatar (Andrzejewski)
Charles Bronson (Buchinski)
Ted Knight (Konopka)
Steve Wozniak
Martha Stewart (Kostyra)

[ianek70]

Otis Redding was born Henryk Grabowski. In Koszalin.
Honest.

[usenetposts]

ianek70 napisał:

> Otis Redding was born Henryk Grabowski. In Koszalin.
> Honest.

Wikipedia says he is a Georgian. I never knew that. I thought he came from
America.

[sobieski010]

Could we perhaps stick to people who were born in Poland?
That would male it more fair I think...

[brookie]

Michael Klim?

[ejmarkow]

It has been said that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the great Russian composer, has
Polish roots. He mentioned this in a letter to Nadezhda von Meck. Tchaikovsky
wrote that his name was Polish and his ancestors were "probably Polish."
(Wikipedia) Can anyone shed more light on this?


Also, according to a book review in today's NY Times, Stephen Walsh states:

"The Stravinsky (Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky) family, like the name, is Polish,
a fact which needs to be stressed in view of recent and perfectly
understandable attempts by Kiev scholars to claim Stravinsky as a Ukrainian of
Cossack lineage. The so-called Soulima-Stravinskys are more accurately
described as "Strawinscy Herbu Sulima," to adopt for the moment the old Polish
spelling of the two names: that is, the Strawinscy family with the Sulima coat-
of-arms."

[brookie]

Czajkowski, Russian? Cannot be.

[usenetposts]

There were a great many of the Polish nobility in Russia, and they tended to
have surnames in '-ski'. It is not a native Russian surname ending but features
there commonly, just as -iuk is a native Ukrainian surname ending but
frequently shows up in Poland.

[brookie]

Karol Czajkowski, freakin' Russians would always give their name to what's
famous.

[ejmarkow]

The famous Russian dancer Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky [Pol. Wacław Niżyński](1890-
1950), has the reputation of being the greatest male dancer in history.

Born in Kiev, Russia, on February 28, 1890, Vaslav was the 2nd son of Fomich
and Eleanora Nijinsky, Polish ballet dancers who were on tour in Russia at the
time of his birth.

[ejmarkow]

"Denounced by Stalin in 1936, Russia's greatest 20th-century composer, Dmitri
Shostakovich, became a tortured soul for his remaining 40 years. Of huge
intellect and emotion, he had to struggle to maintain his integrity in the face
of the state's watchful eyes, while managing to express his own feelings and
those of the Russian people about life under Communism. Of Polish ancestry,
Dmitri Shostakovich was born in St Petersburg in 1906. His father was a chemist
and his mother a gifted musician. The composer's grandfather was a Pole,
Boleslaw Szostakowicz, one of many Poles arrested in the 19th c. for anti-
Czarist activities and exiled to Siberia (in 1866). The composer's father,
Dimitri, moved to Petersburg in 1897 where he met and married a Russian student
(also from Siberia) who studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in hope of
becoming a concert pianist."

[nicolas1981]

Prime Minister of Peru is coming from Poland (not a joke)

[marimax]

I hope the great polish patriot Mr.Kobylanski will become the next Paragway
prime minister

Patriot? Ha ha ha

[ianek70]

marimax napisał:

> I hope the great polish patriot Mr.Kobylanski will become the next Paragway
> prime minister

The same Kobylański who has patriotically lived thousands of kilometres from
Poland for half a century, but continues to inflict damage on his former
homeland by sponsoring the divisive and irritating Radio Maryja?

wiadomosci.wp.pl/kat,1,wid,6891979,wiadomosc.html
www.wprost.pl/drukuj/?0=74956

I think South America is bored with fascist wankers by now.

[jot-23]

Peter Steele of Type-o-negative real name Ratajczyk

[varsovian]

Leonid Brezhnev - half Polish, I seem to remember ...

[minimus]

> Leonid Brezhnev - half Polish, I seem to remember ...

Come on, no way! Breżniewski, Breżniewicz??

[usenetposts]

varsovian napisał:

> Leonid Brezhnev - half Polish, I seem to remember ...

He could not have had any genetic Polish ancestry as the space between his nose
and his upper lip (I do not remember the Latin word for this part of the
anatomy) was so large as effectively to preclude it.

[ejmarkow]

Varsovian, could you please provide valid proof, a reference or link? Or is it
just sarcasm?

[varsovian]

Red herring ...
He was ethnic Russian, but talked like a Ukrainian.

[usenetposts]

varsovian napisał:

> Red herring ...
> He was ethnic Russian, but talked like a Ukrainian.

He just couldn't pronounce his "g"s, was the problem, so he affected the rest
of the Ukrainian accent to go with it, and mask his speech impediment.

[ja_karola]

There is of course Guillaume Apollinaire (or rather Wilhelm Apolinaris
Kostrowicki) - son of a Polish aristocrat and a Russian officer.

Joseph Conrad although he wasn't half, but a full-fledged Pole. As a matter of
fact he left Poland at the age of 17, which only proves how ingenious he must
have been given that he wrote in English.

BTW, Micheal Klim (or Michal as I knew him) is also a full-fledged Pole. We
sat at the same desk in elementary school in Gdynia, Poland. He left with his
family at the age of 10 or 11. They went to Germany before settling in
Australia. My family followed soon after, but to Canada...

Oh yes, and Martha Stewart is truly Polish. She apparently makes the best
babkas on Earth or so Larry King would have us believe.

[ja_karola]

I have more to add:
Mikolaj Kopernik (Copernicus) and Jan Heweliusz (an astronom)
Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Kazimierz Pulaski (both national American heroes)
Ignacy Lukasiewicz - inventor of the kerosene lamp (until then (1853) people
were still using candles). He created the lighting kerosene.
Tamara de Lempicka - born as Maria Gorska in Warsaw. Painter of the Art Deco
era. Her paintings are amazing! Check them out at:
www.goodart.org/artoftdl.htm
Balthus - Baltazar Klossowski de Rola - son of Polish artistocrats. One of the
greatest painters of the XX century. His paintings are currently reaching the
highest prices in the world. OF course the French, as they hava been known to
do with other great Poles (e.g., Sklodowska-Curie, Chopin), appropriate him as
a French artist). artchive.com/artchive/B/balthus.html
Pola Negri - born Apolonia Chalupiec - a silent films goddess. Hitler
apparently cried at her movies, Goebbels, for some reason, wanted to destroy
her and Charlie Chaplin fell in love with her.
Helena Modrzejewska (aka Modjeska) - one of the greatest theatre actresses in
the USA.
Ralph Modjeski - her son - known as the greatets American Bridge Builder.
You can find out more about this fascinating engineer at:
www.polishamericancenter.org/Modjeski.htm

Modjeski's Major Accomplishments Include:
Thebes Bridge over the Mississippi River at Thebes, Illinois - opened in 1904
Benjamin Franklin Bridge between Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey - opened
in 1926
(Considered Modjeski's greatest achievement)
Tacony-Palmyra Bridge over the Delaware River in Northeast Philadelphia -
opened in 1929
Trans-Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland, California - opened in 1936
Blue Water Bridge connecting Port Huron, Michigan with Sarnia, Ontario, Canada -
opened in 1938

[beatrix10]

Is it true that Barbara Bush is half polish ?