lit a candle 3h agoLost my own brother in a similar way this spring, so this one lands harder than it should for someone I only knew from a film. Watched Kler on a whim last year, didn't expect the small parts to stick with me like that. Sorry for his family.
Their story
Stanisław Szelc (2 January 1943 - 21 September 2026) was a Polish satirist, cabaret artist, actor, and broadcaster closely identified with Wrocław's Kabaret Elita and the legendary radio programme Studio 202 on Radio Wrocław. For decades his dry delivery, literary wordplay, and rural-comic characters made him one of the most…
Stanisław Szelc (2 January 1943 - 21 September 2026) was a Polish satirist, cabaret artist, actor, and broadcaster closely identified with Wrocław's Kabaret Elita and the legendary radio programme Studio 202 on Radio Wrocław. For decades his dry delivery, literary wordplay, and rural-comic characters made him one of the most recognisable voices in Polish light entertainment, especially across Lower Silesia where radio satire was a daily companion.
He was born in Prochładnoje in the Kazakh SSR while his family lived in exile. He later noted that he was a great-grandson and grandson of participants in the November and January Uprisings. After resettlement in Poland he attended V Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. gen. Jakuba Jasińskiego in Wrocław. In a comic autobiographical sketch he joked that he arrived in a kolkhoz as an infant who could not use his hands or feet and was blind until a Kyrgyz shaman "uncharmed" him, a humorous way of framing a childhood shaped by Soviet deportation history.
He considered hairdressing and auditioned unsuccessfully for the Łódź theatre school before studying Polish philology, a course he later joked took ten years because he kept being thrown out for spending his time at Teatr Kalambur instead of studying. At Kalambur between 1961 and 1976 he worked as an actor, director, and literary manager, learning stage craft in Wrocław's student and alternative theatre world.
In the late 1970s Andrzej Waligórski invited him into Studio 202, Radio Wrocław's celebrated satire workshop. Szelc later recalled that Waligórski gave the team near-total creative freedom and shielded them from management and censorship pressures, saying the censors "respected" the studio. Among colleagues he named Ewa Szumańska, Jerzy Dębski, Jan Kaczmarek, Leszek Niedzielski, Włodzimierz Plaskota, and Jerzy Skoczylas.
On air he replaced Jan Kaczmarek opposite Ewa Szumańska in the cult serial Z pamiętnika młodej lekarki, and after Waligórski's death he took over the role of Onufry Zagłoba in the Sienkiewicz spoof Rycerze. He wrote the radio sketch series Chłop i baba, later adapted as a 2001 TVP2 comedy series directed by Łukasz Wylężałek in which Szelc played Stanisław Pętoś opposite Agnieszka Matysiak, with co-writing credits shared with Jerzy Skoczylas and Wylężałek. With Kabaret Elita he also co-hosted the PRL nostalgia quiz Tele PRLe on TVP2 and fronted the Polonia programme Ludzie listy piszą.
He joined Kabaret Elita under financial pressure after losing radio work while his wife was on maternity leave. He recalled trembling knees at his first show in Brzeg Dolny beside Kaczmarek, Skoczylas, Niedzielski, Plaskota, and Waligórski. The booking stuck, and he remained part of the Elita lineup for decades of tours, Opole festival appearances, and recordings that kept literary cabaret alive for new audiences.
Screen credits included Badziewiakowie (1999), multiple episodes of Świat według Kiepskich, Emilia (2005), Licencja na wychowanie (2010), Pod Mocnym Aniołem (2014), Wojciech Smarzowski's Kler (2018), Piotrek the 13th III (2018), and Lombard. Życie pod zastaw (2020). In 2009 he received the Silver Medal Zasłużony Kulturze Gloria Artis. Wrocław awarded him its Silver Honorary Badge in 2019 and the Gold Badge in 2023.
Szelc died on 21 September 2026 at the age of 83. Radio Wrocław announced the death and scheduled memorial programming. City president Jacek Sutryk called him simply a figure of Wrocław and of the Polish artistic scene, writing that the city would remember and miss him. Former president Bogdan Zdrojewski remembered a warm but reserved man who listened more than he spoke at the Literatka café on Wrocław's market square. He was married and had two daughters, including Jagoda, and a son. The cause of death was not made public. What remains are the sketches, serials, and performances that still make listeners smile.
Biography adapted from Polish Wikipedia (Stanisław Szelc); Radio Wrocław 2026-09-21; RMF24; Polskie Radio 24; FilmPolski; Wikidata Q9343176; Chłop i baba Wikipedia; RMF Classic / Artur Andrus interview excerpts..
In their own words
“As somehow toward the end of the 1970s, the great Andrzej Waligórski, whom I knew and admired earlier, offered me work at Wrocław's Studio 202.”
Szelc recalling how he joined Studio 202 (Radio Wrocław archival remarks).
“He left absolutely complete freedom of creativity. He did not interfere in anything and fiercely defended the studio against the designs of radio management or the censors.”
On Andrzej Waligórski's leadership, interview with Artur Andrus for RMF Classic.
“I finished Polish studies after 10 years, because every so often I was regularly thrown out of university. And rightly so, because I did not study, I just hung around Teatr Kalambur.”
Self-deprecating career account to Artur Andrus / RMF Classic.
“I remember my knees were shaking like a maiden in the barracks of Petersburg uhlans. It went well and they already booked me.”
On his first Kabaret Elita show in Brzeg Dolny, RMF Classic interview.
“Wrocław już nigdy taki sam bez Pana nie będzie. Będzie natomiast pamiętał i tęsknił.”
Mayor of Wrocław Jacek Sutryk, social-media farewell quoted by Polskie Radio 24 and Radio Wrocław, 21 September 2026.
Photos
1Stanisław Szelc
Dec 2011 · by People Forever
sorry for your loss too