| Birth Date: | 30 December 1957 |
| Birth Place: | Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland |
| Alma Mater: | Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Theatre Academy |
| Years Active: | 1977–present |
| Known For: | Gorky Park |
| Height: | 175 cm |
Joanna Pacuła (pronounced as /pl/; born 30 December 1957) is a Polish actress and model. Born in Tomaszów Lubelski and immigrating to the United States in the early 1980s, she first gained prominence through her modeling work for Vogue. Her breakthrough performance in the 1983 film Gorky Park earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. In the years since, she established herself as a character actress, appearing in numerous high-profile films and television series.
Pacuła was born in Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland, to a pharmacist mother and an engineer father.[1] 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 began her career playing in productions of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and As You Like It. She also found work in a few films, including Krzysztof Zanussi's Camouflage (Barwy ochronne, 1977) and Sergiu Nicolaescu's Last Night of Love (Ultima noapte de dragoste, 1980) in Romania.[2]
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 specialized in playing European temptresses. Her feature debut came in appearing 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),[3] The Kiss (1988),[4] 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 Paradise released in 1985.[5]
She was featured in Marked for Death (1990) as an expert on Jamaican voodoo and gangs;[6] in the Italian erotic thriller Husband and Lovers (1992) as a free-spirited adultress; Tombstone (1993) as Doc Holliday's lover, Kate; in The Haunted Sea (1997); and in the film Virus (1999), playing a Russian scientist.[7] She currently resides in Southern California.
Film
Television