The Most Famous

CELEBRITIES from Poland

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This page contains a list of the greatest Polish Celebrities. The pantheon dataset contains 265 Celebrities, 5 of which were born in Poland. This makes Poland the birth place of the 12th most number of Celebrities behind Austria, and India.

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Polish Celebrities of all time. This list of famous Polish Celebrities is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Anna Anderson

1. Anna Anderson (1896 - 1984)

With an HPI of 69.69, Anna Anderson is the most famous Polish Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 34 different languages on wikipedia.

Anna Anderson (born Franziska Schanzkowska; 16 December 1896 – 12 February 1984) was an impostor who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia. Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Nicholas II and Alexandra, was murdered along with her parents and siblings on 17 July 1918 by Bolshevik revolutionaries in Yekaterinburg, Russia, but the location of her body was unknown until 2007. In 1920, Anderson was institutionalized in a mental hospital after a suicide attempt in Berlin. At first, she went by the name Fräulein Unbekannt (German for Miss Unknown) as she refused to reveal her identity. Later, she used the name Tschaikovsky and then Anderson. In March 1922, claims that Anderson was a Russian grand duchess received public attention. Most members of Grand Duchess Anastasia's family and those who had known her, including court tutor Pierre Gilliard, said Anderson was an impostor but others were convinced she was Anastasia. In 1927, a private investigation funded by the Tsarina's brother, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, identified Anderson as Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish factory worker with a history of mental illness. After a lawsuit lasting many years, the German courts ruled that Anderson had failed to prove she was Anastasia, but through media coverage, her claim gained notoriety. Between 1920 and 1968, Anderson lived in Germany and the United States with various supporters and in nursing homes and sanatoria, including at least one asylum. She emigrated to the United States in 1968. Shortly before the expiration of her visa she married history professor Jack Manahan, who was later characterized as "probably Charlottesville's best-loved eccentric". Upon her death in 1984, Anderson's body was cremated, and her ashes were buried in the churchyard at Castle Seeon, Germany. After the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, the locations of the bodies of the Tsar, Tsarina, and all five of their children were revealed. Multiple laboratories in different countries confirmed their identity through DNA testing. DNA tests on a lock of Anderson's hair and surviving medical samples of her tissue showed that her DNA did not match that of the Romanov remains or that of living relatives of the Romanovs. Instead, Anderson's mitochondrial DNA matched that of Karl Maucher, a great-nephew of Franziska Schanzkowska. Most scientists, historians and journalists who have discussed the case accept that Anderson and Schanzkowska were the same person.

Photo of Aaron Kosminski

2. Aaron Kosminski (1865 - 1919)

With an HPI of 59.49, Aaron Kosminski is the 2nd most famous Polish Celebrity.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Aaron Kosminski (born Aron Mordke Kozmiński; 11 September 1865 – 24 March 1919) was a Polish barber, hairdresser, and suspect in the Jack the Ripper case. Kosminski was a Polish Jew who emigrated from Congress Poland to England in the 1880s. He worked as a hairdresser in Whitechapel in the East End of London, where a series of murders ascribed to an unidentified person nicknamed "Jack the Ripper" were committed in 1888. From 1891, Kosminski was institutionalised after he threatened his sister with a knife. He was first held at Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, and then transferred to the Leavesden Asylum. Police officials from the time of the murders named one of their suspects as "Kosminski" (the forename was not given), and described him as a Polish Jew in an insane asylum. Almost a century after the final murder, the suspect "Kosminski" was identified as Aaron Kosminski; but there was little evidence to connect him with the "Kosminski" who was suspected of the murders, and their dates of death are different. Possibly, Kosminski was confused with another Polish Jew of the same age named Aaron or David Cohen (real name possibly Nathan Kaminsky), who was a violent patient at the Colney Hatch Asylum. In September 2014, author Russell Edwards claimed in the book Naming Jack the Ripper to have proved Kosminski's guilt. In 2007, he had bought a shawl which he believed to have been left at a murder scene and gave it to biochemist Jari Louhelainen to test for DNA. A peer-reviewed article on the DNA analysis was published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in 2019. Scientists from Innsbruck Medical University criticised the paper and its conclusions, substantiating that there were mistakes and (mis)assumptions made by its authors, and the journal printed an expression of concern.

Photo of Marlene Schmidt

3. Marlene Schmidt (b. 1937)

With an HPI of 57.91, Marlene Schmidt is the 3rd most famous Polish Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Marlene Schmidt (born 11 November 1937) is a German control engineer, actress, television host, and beauty queen who won Miss Universe 1961.

Photo of Aneta Kręglicka

4. Aneta Kręglicka (b. 1965)

With an HPI of 48.23, Aneta Kręglicka is the 4th most famous Polish Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Aneta Beata Kręglicka (born 23 March 1965) is a Polish dancer and beauty queen who won the Miss World 1989 contest on 22 November 1989 in Hong Kong, representing Poland. She became the first woman from Poland to win the title and the oldest titleholder when she was crowned on 22 November 1989, at the age of 24 years, 244 days. The next Pole to win said pageant was Karolina Bielawska in 2021.

Photo of Karolina Bielawska

5. Karolina Bielawska (b. 1999)

With an HPI of 44.84, Karolina Bielawska is the 5th most famous Polish Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Karolina Bielawska is a Polish beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss World 2021.

People

Pantheon has 5 people classified as Polish celebrities born between 1865 and 1999. Of these 5, 3 (60.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Polish celebrities include Marlene Schmidt, Aneta Kręglicka, and Karolina Bielawska. The most famous deceased Polish celebrities include Anna Anderson, and Aaron Kosminski. As of April 2024, 4 new Polish celebrities have been added to Pantheon including Aaron Kosminski, Marlene Schmidt, and Aneta Kręglicka.

Living Polish Celebrities

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Deceased Polish Celebrities

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Newly Added Polish Celebrities (2024)

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