Wojciech Frykowski

Wojciech Frykowski
Born	December 22, 1936(1936-12-22) Łódź, Poland
Died	August 9, 1969(1969-08-09) (aged 32) Los Angeles, California, United States

Wojciech Frykowski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈvɔjt͡ɕɛx frɨˈkɔfskʲi]; December 22, 1936 - August 9, 1969) was a Polish actor and writer who was murdered in the home of Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski by members of Charles Manson's "Family".

Early life

Born in Łódź, Poland to Jan and Teofila Frykowski, Wojciech grew up in a wealthy, well-known family and was educated exclusively at the film school in Poland. He had two younger brothers Jerry and Matt. His parents owned a small textile factory in their hometown of Łódź. His younger brother Jerzy "Jerry" Frykowski is a movie producer well known in Central Europe. In the late 1950s Frykowski was married to his first wife Eva and soon after she gave birth to their only son Bartłomiej "Bartek" Frykowski, who was born in 1959. The couple eventually divorced, and Frykowski's ex-wife and son moved west to Paris, France.

In 1963 in Zakopane, Poland he married famous Polish song writer and author Agnieszka Osiecka. The couple divorced a year later and together they had no children. In his early years, Frykowski was a very close friend and financier of film director Roman Polanski and played the part of a thief in one of Polanski's early Polish-made short films, Mammals, in 1962. In 1966, Frykowski moved to France, then a year later to the United States in the hope of furthering his writing career, but was not successful.

Relationship with Abigail Folger

Frykowski was in a relationship with American coffee heiress Abigail Folger. The couple met in New York City in December 1967, when Folger was introduced to him by his old friend, author Jerzy Kosiński. She gave Frykowski a tour of New York and their friendship began. At the time he had little command of English, but like Folger he was fluent in French. They fell in love while she was teaching him how to speak English.

According to Roman Polanski's 1984 autobiography, Folger was very good to Frykowski, paying all of the couple's living expenses at the time. After living together for several months in her New York City apartment, the couple eventually decided to move west to Southern California. Frykowski wanted to get back financially on his feet hoping that Polanski would get him a job in the movie industry, while Folger wanted to be a social worker. In August 1968 they arrived in Los Angeles County, and they rented their first hilltop house on Woodstock drive, in a wealthy section of Hollywood Hills, just off Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. Their neighbor was famous singer Cass Elliot. Frykowski then introduced Folger to Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate. Through the Polanskis, the couple met celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring and other people from their circle.

The couple had been taking care of the Polanski residence since April 1, 1969 when Polanski had left for London, England to work on two different film projects. On July 20, 1969 right after Sharon returned home, Frykowski and Folger agreed to remain at 10050 Cielo Drive with Tate, who was eight months pregnant, until Polański returned from Europe. Polanski was expected to return to California on August 12, 1969. On August 6, Frykowski and Folger attended a birthday party thrown by movie producer Michael Sarne in his Malibu, California beach home. On August 8, 1969 a few hours before their deaths Frykowski and Folger ran some errands together, and later that evening they joined Tate and Sebring for late dinner at the Mexican restaurant "El Coyote" on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. After dinner, the group returned to the Polanski residence, where Frykowski fell asleep on the couch in the living room and Folger went to her bedroom to read a book.

Death

In the early morning hours of August 9, 1969 just after midnight, Frykowski and Folger were murdered, along with Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and Steven Parent by members of Charles Manson's "Family" who broke into the Polanski residence at 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, California. Frykowski was shot twice, struck thirteen times over the head with a blunt object and stabbed in total 51 times. According to his killers — Charles "Tex" Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan Atkins — Frykowski fought very hard for his life and for the lives of other victims. During the fight with their assailants, Frykowski and Folger escaped the house only to be overwhelmed and stabbed to death. Their bodies were discovered the next day by Tate's housekeeper, resting not far from each other on a front lawn of the property.

Frykowski's body was cremated on August 22, 1969 in Los Angeles, California. After a private memorial his remains were claimed by his Polish relatives and buried in the St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery in his native Łódź, Poland.

External links

• Wojciech Frykowski at the Internet Movie Database
• Web page about Manson family and their victims
• Biography and pictures of Wojciech Frykowski
• Wojciech Frykowski at Find a Grave