Vladek Sheybal's life was marked by both war and art. A member of the Polish underground during World War II, he was captured and interned in concentration camps twice, only to escape both times. After the war, he was torn between becoming a doctor or an actor, eventually choosing the latter.
Sheybal's father, a painter and professor of Fine Arts, initially pushed him to become an architect, but the young man's passion for acting won out. He spent six months at the prestigious Stanislavsky School of Acting and four years at the Drama Director's School.
By the time he shared a dressing room with Roman Polanski at the National Theatre in Warsaw, Sheybal was one of Poland's leading actors. He made his screen debut in Andrzej Wajda's Kanal (1957),a story about the Polish Resistance during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
Despite having "not a drop of Polish blood" in him, Sheybal's ethnic background was a mix of Armenian, Scottish, and Austrian. He spoke fluent French, Italian, and German before learning English.
In the early 1960s, Sheybal moved to England on a scholarship to hone his craft, but his limited English and lack of connections forced him to take on menial jobs. He eventually enrolled at Oxford University to study English literature, teaching drama as his English improved.
Sheybal's breakthrough in the English-speaking world came when he played the role of Kronsteen, a chess grandmaster and SPECTRE agent, in From Russia with Love (1963). This led to a job with the BBC as actor/director.
Throughout his career, Sheybal was typecast in sinister, eccentric, or sardonic roles, often playing Central European or Soviet spies. He worked with notable directors, including Ken Russell, and appeared in cult sci-fi series UFO (1970).
In the latter stages of his career, Sheybal revisited the stage, appearing in fringe venues in London. He also taught acting classes at the London Academy of TV and made forays into French cinema.
A consummate perfectionist and one of the great European character actors, Vladek Sheybal died unexpectedly in October 1992 at the age of 69.
