Gene Gutowski
Date of Birth
Gene Gutowski was a producer best known for his work on the 2002 film The Pianist, starring Adrien Brody in an Oscar-winning performance. Brody played Polish-Jewish composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, who ultimately survived the war. The film was nominated for seven Oscars in total, including best picture. In addition to Brody’s win, the film also received awards for best director, for Roman Polanski, and best adapted screenplay, for Ronald Harwood.
Gutowski also contributed to the films Repulsion, a Polanski film starring Catherine Deneuve; Station Six-Sahara, starring Carroll Baker; Polanski’s Cul-De-Sac and The Fearless Vampire Killers; and Romance of a Horsethief, with Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach and Jane Birkin.
A Holocaust survivor from Poland (as was Polanski), Gutowski lost his family during World War II. After the war, he worked for U.S. military intelligence, and moved to America in 1947. Impressed with Polanski’s work, Gutowski arranged a meeting with the director and convinced him to make a film in English, which ultimately became their first collaboration, 1965’s Repulsion.
Gutowski got his start in entertainment in 1955 on the American television series I Spy. Created by Edward J. Montagne and Phil Reisman Jr., the series ran from 1955 to 1956 for a total of 39 episodes, and starred Raymond Massey as Anton, the Spymaster.
Gene Gutowski was a producer best known for his work on the 2002 film The Pianist, starring Adrien Brody in an Oscar-winning performance. Brody played Polish-Jewish composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, who ultimately survived the war. The film was nominated for seven Oscars in total, including best picture. In addition to Brody’s win, the film also received awards for best director, for Roman Polanski, and best adapted screenplay, for Ronald Harwood.
Gutowski also contributed to the films Repulsion, a Polanski film starring Catherine Deneuve; Station Six-Sahara, starring Carroll Baker; Polanski’s Cul-De-Sac and The Fearless Vampire Killers; and Romance of a Horsethief, with Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach and Jane Birkin.
A Holocaust survivor from Poland (as was Polanski), Gutowski lost his family during World War II. After the war, he worked for U.S. military intelligence, and moved to America in 1947. Impressed with Polanski’s work, Gutowski arranged a meeting with the director and convinced him to make a film in English, which ultimately became their first collaboration, 1965’s Repulsion.
Gutowski got his start in entertainment in 1955 on the American television series I Spy. Created by Edward J. Montagne and Phil Reisman Jr., the series ran from 1955 to 1956 for a total of 39 episodes, and starred Raymond Massey as Anton, the Spymaster.
Gutowski’s son, Adam Bardach, documented his father's wartime experience in the 2014 film Dancing Before the Enemy: How a Teenage Boy Fooled the Nazis and Lived.
Gutowski died May 10, 2016, in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland. He was 90.
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