Biography

[Pending the time to write anything up, this is from Wikipedia, July 2013]

Nastassja Kinski (born 24 January 1961) is a German actress who has appeared in more than 60 films, in both her native Europe and the United States. Kinksi’s starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess and multi-awardwinner Paris, Texas, one of a number of films made with German director Wim Wenders. She has also starred in a remake of erotic horror classic Cat People. Born in Germany, Kinski began her career as a model.

Early life

Born in Berlin as Nastassja Aglaia Nakszynski, 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, after the age of 10, rarely saw her father, and she and her mother struggled financially. They eventually lived in a commune in Munich.

In 1999, she denied that her father had sexually molested her, but confirmed he molested her “in other ways.” In 2013, when interviewed about the allegations of sexual abuse made by her half-sister Pola Kinski, she confirmed that he tried with her, but unlike with her sister, he did not actually succeed with her. She stated: “He was no father. 99 percent of the time I was terrified of him. He was so unpredictable that the family lived in constant terror.” When asked what she would say to him now, if she had the chance, she replied: “I would do anything to put him behind bars for life. I am glad he is no longer alive.”

Career

Her career began in Germany as a model, during which the German New Wave actress Lisa Kreuzer helped get her the role of the dumb Mignon in Wim Wenders film The Wrong Move. In 1976, while still a teenager, she had her first two major roles: firstly in Wolfgang Petersen directed feature-film length episode Reifezeugnis of German TV crime series Tatort; then in 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, telling 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.”

In 1978 Kinski starred in Italian romance Stay As You Are (Cosi come sei) with Marcello Mastroianni, New Line Cinema released it in the United States in December 1979, helping Kinski to get more recognition there. Time magazine wrote that she was “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 Richard Avedon photographed Kinski with a Burmese python coiled around her naked body. The image was marketed as a poster.

In 1982 she starred in romantic musical One from the Heart and erotic horror movie Cat People. Dudley Moore comedy Unfaithfully Yours and an adaptation of John Irving’s The Hotel New Hampshire followed in 1984.

Paris, Texas, one of her most acclaimed films to date, won the top award at the Cannes. During this period Kinski split her time between Europe and the United States, making big-budget bomb Moon in the Gutter (1983), Harem (1985) and Torrents of Spring (1989) in Europe and Exposed (1983), Maria’s Lovers (1984) and Revolution (1985).

Since then Kinski has appeared in a number of American roles, including action movie Terminal Velocity, opposite Charlie Sheen, and the Mike Figgis adultery tale, One Night Stand.

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” The film failed at the box office and was a major loss for Coppola’s new studio, Zoetrope Studios. Other appearances include Somebody Is Waiting (1996), Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), John Landis’ Susan’s Plan (1998), The Lost Son (1999), and Inland Empire (2006).

Personal life

Although the sources differ, some say that in 1976 Kinski began a romantic relationship with Roman Polanski. 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, and they have two children together; a son Aljosha (born 1984), and daughter Sonja Kinski (born 1986), now a model. The marriage was dissolved in 1992. From 1992 until 1995 Kinski lived with musician Quincy Jones, and in 1993 they had a daughter, Kenya Julia Miambi Sarah Jones.

In 2001, Kinski has publicy spoken of being a narcoleptic in an interview for the The Daily Telegraph.