Eugeniusz Bodo

Eugeniusz Bodo (born Bohdan Eugène Junod; 28 December 1899 – 7 October 1943) was a film director, producer, singer, pianist and one of the most popular Polish actors and comedians of the interwar period. He starred in some of the most popular Polish film productions of the 1930s, including His Excellency, The Shop Assistant (Polish: Jego ekscelencja subiekt), Czy Lucyna to dziewczyna?, and Pieśniarz Warszawy.

A skilled singer, he became an icon of Polish musical comedy and a "symbol of Polish commercial cinema". In the late 1930s he also became a successful entrepreneur – co-owner of a successful film studio, café, and producers' company. Arrested by the Soviet NKVD in the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, he perished in the Soviet Gulag.

Biography

Bohdan Eugène Junod was born on 28 December 1899. His birthplace is uncertain; sources name Warsaw, Łódź, and Geneva, Switzerland. His mother was Jadwiga Anna Dorota née Dylewska. His father, Teodor Junod, was a Swiss citizen who moved to Russian-held Poland and in 1903 settled in Łódź. There he opened a revue-cinema, Urania – the first permanent cinema theatre in that city. It was there that Bodo made his stage debut at the age of six.

In 1917 Junod moved to Poznań where he joined "Teatr Apollo". In 1919 (under a new stage name of Eugeniusz Bodo, the surname created from the initials of his own first name Bohdan and his mother's – Dorota) he started acting in various Warsaw-based theatres, variétés and cabarets (Qui Pro Quo, Perskie Oko and Cyrulik Warszawski being the most famous). He also played major roles in Warsaw-based "Teatr Polski" and Wilno-based "Teatr Lutnia".