Nastassja Kinski

Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski in 2009
Born	Nastassja Aglaia Nakszyński January 24, 1961 (1961-01-24) West Berlin, West Germany
Occupation	actress
Years active	1975–present
Spouse	Ibrahim Moussa (1984–1992)

Nastassja Kinski (born January 24, 1961) is a German-born American-based actress who has appeared in more than 60 films. Her starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess and her roles in two erotic films (Stay As You Are and Cat People), as well as parts in Wim Wenders' films The Wrong Move; Paris, Texas; and Faraway, So Close!. Richard Avedon's photo of her, nude with a large python, was marketed as a poster.

Early life

Born in Berlin as Nastassja Aglaia Nakszyński on 24 January 1961, Kinski is the daughter of the German actor Klaus Kinski from his marriage to actress Ruth Brigitte Tocki, thus making her half sister to Pola and Nikolai Kinski. Her parents divorced in 1968. Kinski rarely saw her father after the age of 10. Kinski and her mother struggled financially. They eventually lived in a commune in Munich.

Career

Kinski's career began in Germany where she started as a model. After this the German New Wave actress Lisa Kreuzer placed her in the role of the dumb Mignon in Wim Wenders' film The Wrong Move. In 1976 she had her first major role in the feature length film and Wolfgang Petersen directed episode Reifezeugnis of the German TV crime series Tatort. Also in 1976, in her mid-teens, she starred in the British Hammer Film Productions' horror film To the Devil a Daughter (1976). She has stated that, as a child, she felt exploited by the industry and told a journalist from W Magazine, "If I had had somebody to protect me or if I had felt more secure about myself, I would not have accepted certain things. Nudity things. And inside it was just tearing me apart."

Kinski starred in Stay As You Are (1978) with Marcello Mastroianni. New Line Cinema released it in the United States in December 1979, helping Kinski to get more recognition there. Time magazine said: "Kinski is simply ravishing, genuinely sexy and high-spirited without being painfully aggressive about it." Director Roman Polanski urged Kinski to study acting with Lee Strasberg in the United States and cast her in his film, Tess (1979). In 1981, photographer Richard Avedon photographed Kinski with a Burmese python coiled around her naked body.

In 1982, Kinski appeared in One from the Heart, and Cat People, and then Unfaithfully Yours, and The Hotel New Hampshire. Paris, Texas won awards at Cannes, however, the film was not widely released in the United States. Kinski then split her time between Europe and the United States, making Moon in the Gutter (1983), Harem (1985) and Torrents of Spring (1989) in Europe and Exposed (1983), Maria’s Lovers (1984) and Revolution (1985) in the U.S. Kinski's luck turned in the 1990s when she appeared in films such as Terminal Velocity opposite Charlie Sheen, and Mike Figgis' One Night Stand.

Nastassja Kinski in 1989

In One From the Heart, director Francis Ford Coppola brought Kinski to the U.S. to act as a "Felliniesque circus performer to represent the twinkling evanescence of Eros. . . Kinski has one great moment in the film, when she seductively curls up in a giant neon-rimmed martini glass. . ." The film failed at the box office, and was a major loss for Coppola's new studio, Zoetrope.

Other appearances have included Martin Donovan's Somebody Is Waiting (1996), Neil LaBute's Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), John Landis' Susan's Plan (1998), Chris Menges' The Lost Son (1999), Michael Winterbottom's The Claim (2000), and David Lynch's Inland Empire (2006).

She has not appeared in any films since her cameo in Inland Empire.

Personal life

In 1976, Kinski began a romantic relationship with Roman Polanski, when she was 15 years old and he was 43.

In the mid-1980s, Kinski met Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim Moussa. They married on September 10, 1984. They raised her son (by actor Vincent Spano), Aljosha (born 1984) and daughter, Sonja Kinski, now a model (born 1986). The marriage was dissolved in 1992. From 1992 until 1995, Kinski lived with musician Quincy Jones. In 1993, their daughter, Kenya Julia Miambi Sarah Jones, was born.

Kinski speaks German, French, English, Italian and Russian fluently.

Selected filmography

Kinski at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.

• The Wrong Move (1975)
• To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
• Tatort: Reifezeugnis (1977)
• Passion Flower Hotel (1978)
• Così come sei (also known as Stay As You Are, 1978)
• Tess (1979)
• One from the Heart (1982)
• Cat People (1982)
• Exposed (1983)
• Moon in the Gutter (1983)
• Maria’s Lovers (1984)
• Paris, Texas (1984)
• The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)
• Unfaithfully Yours (1984)
• Harem (1985)
• Revolution (1985)
• Torrents of Spring (1989)
• The Sun Also Shines at Night (1990)
• The Secret (1990)
• Faraway, So Close! (1993)
• Terminal Velocity (1994)
• Crackerjack (1994)
• The Ring (1996)
• Fathers' Day (1997)
• One Night Stand (1997)
• Bella Mafia (1997)
• Little Boy Blue (1997)
• Savior (1998)
• Playing by Heart (1998)
• Your Friends & Neighbors (1998)
• The Intruder (1999)
• The Claim (2000)
• The Magic of Marciano (2000)
• Time Share (2000)
• An American Rhapsody (2001)
• The Day the World Ended (2001)
• Town & Country (2001)
• Blind Terror (TV 2001)
• Say Nothing (2001)
• .com for Murder (2002)
• Paradise Found (2003)
• Les Liaisons dangereuses (TV miniseries 2003)
• À ton image (2004)
• Inland Empire (2006)

External links

• Kinski's French language website
• Nastassja Kinski at the Internet Movie Database
• Nastassja Kinski at the TCM Movie Database
• Nastassja Kinski at AllRovi
• Nastassja Kinski at Yahoo! Movies
• "Daddy's Girl", The Guardian, 3 July 1999.

Videos

• "One From the Heart" video clip, 5 min.
• Photo slide show video, 3 min.
• David Letterman show part 1
• David Letterman show, part 2, discussing early career and director Roman Polanski