Wiesław Dymny, a celebrated Polish satirist and actor known for his work with the famed cabaret Piwnica pod Baranami, died on February 12, 1978, in his Kraków apartment. He was 51 years old.
The official cause of death was determined to be a heart attack, but contributing factors included a lifestyle marked by alcohol abuse, according to reports from the time. Dymny’s struggles with alcohol had previously impacted his personal relationships.
Prior to his marriage to Anna Dziadyk, later known as Anna Dymna, the actress and performer, Dymny was in a tumultuous eight-year relationship with Barbara Nawratowicz, an actress and radio journalist. Friends and colleagues from Piwnica pod Baranami described their relationship as “extremely stormy, and toxic.” Nawratowicz’s death in Switzerland on May 10, 2024, garnered renewed attention when it was revealed she had chosen assisted suicide, undergoing euthanasia.
Dymny’s first marriage was to Teresa Hrynkiewicz, whose sister, Barbara, was married to Leszek Długosz, another prominent member of Piwnica pod Baranami. The couple met when Hrynkiewicz worked as a bartender in Jaszczurach, while studying geography.
Dymny and Anna Dziadyk married in 1971, a union that lasted just under seven years. Shortly before his death, in the autumn of 1977, the couple’s apartment was partially destroyed by an explosion caused by a faulty kinescope in a Soviet-made television. Dymny narrowly escaped injury as he was preparing a bath for his wife, who was returning from the theater. The incident plunged him into a period of depression, from which he recovered while overseeing repairs to the apartment. Anna Dymna was not living in the apartment at the time.
The couple had planned to have dinner together on February 12, 1978, the day of Dymny’s death. When he failed to appear or answer his phone, Anna Dymna went to his apartment and discovered his body. Initial reports incorrectly attributed his death to the earlier television explosion, and speculation about a possible suicide circulated.
Wiesław Dymny was buried at the Salwatorski Cemetery in Kraków. His widow, Anna Dymna, struggled to cope with his loss and subsequently remarried Zbigniew Szota, a massage therapist, with whom she had a son, Michał, born in 1985. Her third marriage was to actor and theater director Krzysztof Orzechowski.
