Roman Polanski directed the critical and commercial hits
Rosemary's Baby (1968, starring
Mia Farrow) and
Chinatown (1974, starring
Jack Nicholson) before leaving the United States in 1978 after being charged with the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl. A childhood survivor of the Krakow ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland, Roman Polanski began acting as a teen, then went to film school and in the late 1950s began winning international awards for his short films. His first feature film, the tense drama
Knife in the Water (1962), received an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film, and within a few years Polanski made his way to Hollywood. The success of the devilish
Rosemary's Baby in 1968 was soon overshadowed by the 1969 murder of Polanski's pregnant wife, actress
Sharon Tate, by members of a cult led by
Charles Manson. Polanski returned to Europe, settling in France, and continued to make movies in Europe and the U.S. In 1977, Roman Polanski was charged in Los Angeles with drugging and raping a 13 year-old girl, Samantha Gailey, during what was supposed to be a magazine photo shoot. After a few months in jail for psychiatric review, Polanski was released on bail and allowed to leave the country to work on a film. He never returned. Polanski continued making movies in Europe and in the 1980s and '90s appeared many times on stage. His filmography includes some great films, some stinkers and a few that can be taken either way, but he is considered by many to be a great director -- an opinion reinforced by his 2003 Academy Award as best director for the Holocaust drama
The Pianist (starring
Adrien Brody). His other feature films include
Tess (1980),
Frantic (1988, starring
Harrison Ford) ,
The Ninth Gate (2000, starring
Johnny Depp), the 2005 version of
Charles Dickens's
Oliver Twist, the 2010 political thriller
Ghost Writer (starring
Ewan McGregor) and the 2017 psychodrama
Based On a True Story (starring his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, and
Eva Green).