Joanna Pacuà Âa (; born 30 December 1957) is a Polish actress and model. Born in Tomaszów Lubelski, she emigrated to the United States in the early 1980s, and first gained prominence through her modeling work for Vogue. Her breakthrough performance in the 1983 film Gorky Park earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In the years since, she established herself as a character actress, appearing in numerous high-profile films and television series.
Pacuà Âa was born in Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland, to a pharmacist mother and an engineer father. She has a sister, Ewa Pacuà Âa, a model and TV personality who has also worked in the United States.
In 1979, Pacuà Âa graduated from the Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Theatre Academy. After graduation, she joined the Warsaw Dramatic Theatre, where she acted until 1981. She began her career playing in productions of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and As You Like It. She also found work in a few films, including Krzysztof Zanussi's Camouflage (Barwy ochronne, 1977) and Sergiu Nicolaescu's Last Night of Love (', 1980) in Romania.
In 1981, Pacuà Âa was in Paris when the communist authorities in Poland declared martial law. She did not return to her homeland, and in 1982 emigrated to the United States, where she specialized in playing European temptresses. Her feature debut came in appearing opposite William Hurt in Gorky Park (1983). She was praised by Roman Polanski for that role. She played in numerous American TV series and movies, including the Holocaust drama Escape From Sobibor (CBS, 1987), The Kiss (1988), E.A.R.T.H. Force (CBS, 1990), and the TV series, The Colony (ABC, 1996). She also starred in Lewis Gilbert's Not Quite Paradise released in 1985.
She was featured in Marked for Death (1990) as an expert on Jamaican voodoo and gangs; in the Italian erotic thriller Husband and Lovers (1992) as a free-spirited adultress; Tombstone (1993) as Doc Holliday's lover, Kate; in The Haunted Sea (1997); and in the film Virus (1999), playing a Russian scientist. She currently resides in Southern California.
Pacula began dating film producer Hawk Koch in 1983, after he cast her in Gorky Park on the recommendation of Roman Polanski. They later separated.
Film
Television