Joanna Pacula Actress - Born January 2, 1957 in Tomaszów Lubelski, Lubelskie, Poland

Height 5' 9" (1.75 m)

Mini Bio (1) Joanna Pacula was born on January 2, 1957 in Tomaszów Lubelski, Lubelskie, Poland. She is an actress, known for Tombstone (1993), Gorky Park (1983) and The Kiss (1988).

Spouse (1) Hawk Koch (? - ?) (divorced)

Education; Polish National Theatre School, Warsaw, Poland (Acting)

When martial law was declared in Poland in December 1981, Pacula was vacationing in Paris. She remained there and became romantically involved with director Roman Polanski, who got her work as a model shortly after she moved to the United States, where she was featured in 'Vogue' magazine. Polanski recommended her for the female lead in Gorky Park (1983), her first lead role.

Once owned a house that belonged to Rudolph Valentino.

When she immigrated to America, she moved in with legendary Polish actress Elzbieta Czyzewska. It was Elzbieta who connected her with many people to help Joanna get her career in the US started. This meeting also later inspired Anna (1987).

Her performance as "Irina Asanova", in Gorky Park (1983), is ranked #57 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).

Appeared on cover of Vogue 2 times.

Ranked #9 in FHM magazine's '100 sexiest women of all time'.

Ex-daughter-in-law of Howard W. Koch.

Joanna Pacuła (Polish: [jɔˈanːa paˈt͡suwa]; born 2 January 1957) is a Polish-born actress and model.

Life and career Pacuła was born in Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland, to a pharmacist mother and an engineer father. She has a sister, Ewa Pacuła, a model and TV personality who has also worked in the United States.

In 1979, Pacuła graduated from the Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Theatre Academy. After graduation, she joined the Warsaw Dramatic Theatre where she acted until 1981. She started her career playing in productions of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Othello and As You Like It. She also found work in a handful of films, including Krzysztof Zanussi's Barwy ochronne/Camouflage (1977) and Sergiu Nicolaescu's Ultima noapte de dragoste (1980) in Romania.

In 1981, Pacuła was in Paris when the communist authorities in Poland declared martial law. She did not return to her homeland and in 1982 emigrated to the United States, where she started specializing in playing European temptresses since her feature debut opposite William Hurt in Gorky Park (1983). She was praised by Roman Polanski for that role. She played in numerous American TV series and movies, including the Holocaust drama Escape From Sobibor (CBS, 1987), The Kiss (1988), E.A.R.T.H. Force (CBS, 1990), and the TV series, The Colony (ABC, 1996). She also starred in Lewis Gilbert's Not Quite Jerusalem in 1984.

She was featured in Marked for Death (1990) as an expert on Jamaican voodoo and gangs; in the Italian erotic thriller Husband and Lovers (1992) as a free-spirited adultress; Tombstone (1993) as Doc Holliday's lover, Kate (also known as Big Nose Kate and Mary Catherine Horoney, born 7 November 1850); in The Haunted Sea (1997); and in the film Virus (1999), playing a Russian scientist. She currently resides in Southern California.

Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world (1990).

Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1984" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 36.