(1886-1945)
Actress and director. Born Renée Claire Elisabeth Napierkowska in Paris of Polish parents, Stacia Napierkowska went on to become one of the great actresses of silent film. She was trained in classical dance and theater and performed on the stage before making her film debut. Napierkowska was hired on at Pathé in 1908. She made her film debut in Henri Burguet's L'Empreinte ou la main rouge (1908) along-side other theatrical stars like Mistinguett and Max Dearly.
Napierkowska was a favorite of director Albert Capellani, who cast her in several of his films, including L'Arlésienne (1909), La Peau de chagrin (1909), Lucrèce Borgia (1909), L 'Assomoir (1909), La Zingara (1910), Tristan et Yseut (1911), Notre Dame de Paris (1911), Les Mystères de Paris (1911), and Un amour de La Du Barry (1912). She also worked frequently with director René Leprince, starring in his films La Légende des tulipes d'or (1912), Le Reprouvé (1912), Le Miracle des fleurs (1912), and Les Martyrs de la vie (1912).
Among her other films at Pathé are the uncredited Le Fils du saltimbanque (1908), Charles Esquier's La Fille du saltimbanque (1909), Michel Carré's L'Oeuvre de Jean Serval (1909), Ferdinand Zecca and Henri Andréani's Cléopatre (1910) and La Tragique aventure de Robert le taciturne, duc d'Aquitaine (1910), Andréani's La Messaline (1910), Gaston Velle's Le Charme des fleurs (1910), Au temps des pharaons (1910), Velle and Camille de Morlhon's Cagliostro, aventurier, chimiste et magicien (1910), Morlhon's Semiramis (1911), Zecca and Leprince's La Fièvre de l'or (1912), and Leprince and Maurice Mahut's Le Roi du bagne (1913).
Napierkowska appeared alongside Pathé's great star Max Linder in a number of his Max films, including Amour tenace (1912),Max veut grandir (1912), Max et la fuite de gaz (1912), Max émule de Tartarin (1912), Max lance la mode (1912), Max peintre par amour (1912), Max escamoteur (1912), Une nuit agitée (1912), Entente cordiale (1912), Un mariage au téléphone (1913), and Max toréador (1913). She also did several films for Gaumont during the period between 1910 and 1915. She worked with Louis Feuillade on Le Festin de Balthazar (1910) and his landmark series Les Vampires (1915). She also appeared in her friend Germaine Dulac's film Venus victrix (1916).
From 1915 until 1920, Napierkowska worked exclusively in Italy. There she made nearly twenty films and was the star of them all. She also directed one film, L'Héritière de la manade (1917). She returned to France in 1920 to star in Jacques Feyder's legendary silent film L'Atlantide (1920), which is probably her most famous role. After L'Atlantide, she appeared in Henri Étiévant's La Fille de Camargue (1921), Théo Bergerat's La Douleureuse comédie (1921), Marco de Gastyne's Inch'Allah (1922), Albert-Francis Bertoni's Les Frères Zemganno (1925), and Fred LeRoy Granville's Le Berceau de dieu (1926). Napierkowska retired from the screen in 1926 after having appeared in more than eighty films.
Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins
Guide to cinema. Academic. 2011.