100-Year-Old Famed Polish Actor Comes Out as Gay

The theater and film actor came out during an interview about his career that began in 1945.

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

March 19 2020 5:09 PM EST

March 19 2020 5:15 PM EST

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During an interview to mark his 100th birthday, Witold Sadowy, a legend of the theater in Poland, came out as gay, according to Metro UK.

While Sadowy turned 100 in January, it was at the end of a career retrospective with TVP Kultura that he came out.

"For me, the most important thing is the survival of the truth," Wiltold said. "I am proud that I am an honest man. I didn't get married, and I didn't have children, something I really regret."

"But I was born different. I'm gay," he continued. "Now I have said everything, as in confession."

Born in 1920, Sadowy endured the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II. His coming-out coincides with a time in his country where 80 towns declared to be LGBTQ-free zones. The European Parliament condemned the anti-LGBTQ zones last fall.

A stage and film actor and a theater columnist and author, Sadowy began acting at the Dramatic Theatre in Warsaw in 1945 and he retired in 1989, according to Metro UK.

Sadowy is the recipient of the 2012 Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and he was named a "distinguished member" of the Association of Polish Stage Artists.