Nastassja Aglaia Kinski (; née Nakszynski, ; born 24 January 1961)John Sandford (ed.) (2001), Encyclopedia of Contemporary German Culture (Routledge world reference): 340 is a German actress and former model. She has appeared in more than 60 films in Europe and the United States. Her worldwide breakthrough was with Stay as You Are (1978). Kinski then came to global prominence with her Golden Globe Award-winning performance as the title character in the Roman Polanski-directed film Tess (1979). Her other films include the Francis Ford Coppola musical romance film One from the Heart (1982), Paul Schrader's supernatural horror film Cat People (1982), and the Wim Wenders films Paris, Texas (1984) and Faraway, So Close! (1993). She also appeared in the biographical drama film An American Rhapsody (2001). Kinski is the daughter of German actor Klaus Kinski.
Early life
Born Nastassja Aglaia Nakszynski in West Berlin she is the daughter of German actor Klaus KinskiDavidson, John E. Deterritorializing the New German Cinema, Regents of the University of Minnesota, 1999, p. 80 and his second wife, actress Ruth Brigitte Tocki.Welsh, James Michael; Gene D. Phillips; Rodney Hill. The Francis Ford Coppola Encyclopedia, Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press Inc., 2010, p. 154 She is of partial Polish descent, for her grandfather Bruno Nakszynski was a Germanized ethnic Pole. Kinski has two half-siblings: Pola and Nikolai Kinski. Her parents divorced in 1968. After the age of 10, Kinski rarely saw her father. Her young mother struggled financially to support them; they eventually lived in a commune in Munich.
In a 1999 interview, Kinski denied that her father had molested her as a child, but said he had abused her "in other ways". In 2013, when interviewed about the allegations of sexual abuse made by her half-sister Pola Kinski, she confirmed that he attempted this with her, but did not succeed. She said, "He was no father. Ninety-nine percent of the time I was terrified of him. He was so unpredictable that the family lived in constant terror." When asked what she would say to him now, if she had the chance, she replied, "I would do anything to put him behind bars for life. I am glad he is no longer alive."
Career
Kinski began working as a model as a teenager in Germany. Actress Lisa Kreuzer of the German New Wave helped get her the role of the mute Mignon in Wim Wenders 1975 film The Wrong Move. Aged 13 at the time, she was depicted topless. In 2026, Kinski called on Wenders to halt distribution of the film, and he did so. She later played one of the leading roles in Wenders' film Paris, Texas (1984) and appeared in his film Faraway, So Close (1993).
In 1976, while still a teenager, Kinski had her first two major roles. She played Sina Wolf in Wolfgang Petersen's feature film-length episode Reifezeugnis of the German TV crime series Tatort, and played Catherine Beddows in the horror film To the Devil a Daughter (1976), co-produced by Hammer Film Productions and Terra Film. The film was released in the UK just 40 days after Kinski's fifteenth birthday, making it a virtual certainty she was only fourteen when her scenes were shot (including full frontal nudity). In regards to her early films, Kinski has stated that she felt exploited by the industry. In an interview with W, she said, "If I had had somebody to protect me or if I had felt more secure about myself, I would not have accepted certain things. Nudity things. And inside it was just tearing me apart."Nastassja Kinski interview with Louise Farr. "Kinski Business", W, May 1997.
In 1978, Kinski starred in the Italian romance Stay as You Are (Così come sei) with Marcello Mastroianni, gaining her recognition in the United States after New Line Cinema released it there in December 1979. Time wrote that she was "simply ravishing, genuinely sexy and high-spirited without being painfully aggressive about it." The film also received a major international release from Columbia Pictures.
Kinski met the director Roman Polanski at a party in 1976. He urged her to study method acting with Lee Strasberg in the United States and she was offered the title role in Polanski's upcoming film, Tess (1979). In 1978, Kinski underwent extensive preparation for the portrayal of an English peasant girl, which included acquiring a Dorset accent through elocution studies:
Tess was nominated for six awards, including Best Picture, at the 53rd Academy Awards, and won three.
On 14 June 1981, Vogue editor Polly Allen Mellen asked Nastassja Kinski what she liked and Kinski replied, "snakes," then a Burmese python was hired for the photoshoot with Richard Avedon, with resulting photograph of Kinski with a Burmese python coiled around her nude body, "Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, Los Angeles, California, June 14, 1981". The image, which first appeared in the October 1981 issue of US Vogue, was released as a poster and became a best-seller, further confirming her status as a sex symbol.
In 1982, she starred in Francis Ford Coppola's romantic musical One from the Heart, her first film made in the United States.Coppola, Francis Ford; Phillips, Gene D.; Hill, Rodney. Francis Ford Coppola: Interviews, Univ. Press of Mississippi, (2004) p. 136 Texas Monthly described her as acting "as a Felliniesque circus performer to represent the twinkling evanescence of Eros."Texas Monthly, March 1982 p. 175 The film failed at the box office and was a major loss for Coppola's new Zoetrope Studios. That year, she was also in the erotic supernatural horror movie Cat People. On 29 December 1982, Kinski made a puzzling appearance on the program Late Night with David Letterman, seeming somewhat oblivious to the jokes and everything else that was going on around her and appearing with an unusual hair style Letterman described as "looking like there was an owl perched on top of her head." (Letterman's second guest, John Candy, came out with his own hair moussed up in a pile as a spoof of Kinski's hair.)
Dudley Moore's comedy Unfaithfully Yours and an adaptation of John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire followed in 1984.
Kinski reteamed with Wenders for the 1984 film Paris, Texas. One of her most acclaimed films to date, it won the top award at the Cannes Film Festival. Throughout the 1980s, Kinski split her time between Europe and the United States, making Moon in the Gutter (1983), Harem (1985) and Torrents of Spring (1989) in Europe, and Exposed (1983), Maria's Lovers (1984), and Revolution (1985) in the United States.
During the 1990s, Kinski appeared in a number of American films, including the action movie Terminal Velocity opposite Charlie Sheen, the Mike Figgis 1997 adultery tale One Night Stand, Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), John Landis's Susan's Plan (1998), and The Lost Son (1999).
Her most recent films include David Lynch's Inland Empire (2006) and Rotimi Rainwater's Sugar (2013). In 2016, she competed in the German Let's Dance show.Schauspielerin Nastassja Kinski, hier beim 11. Semperopernball in Dresden, wagt sich bei „Let's Dance" aufs Parkett : Die ersten Kandidaten für die neunte Staffel der Tanzshow „Let's Dance" stehen fest: Schauspielerin Nastassja Kinski, Schlagersänger Michael Wendler, Sängerin Sarah Lombardi und Moderator Niels Ruf, welt.de; accessed 19 December 2016.
In recent years, Kinski has once again appeared in several German film productions, including Dark Satellites (2022) and LasVegas (2023).
In June 2026, following years of campaigning by Kinski, Wim Wenders agreed to withdraw Wrong Move from distribution, and apologised to her for the "sexualised" scene he had filmed of her when she was 13.
Personal life
In 1976, when Kinski was aged 15, it was speculated that there had been a romantic relationship with director Roman Polanski, who at the time was 43. Polanski confirmed the relationship in a 1994 interview with Diane Sawyer: "...what about Nastassja Kinski? She was young and we had a love affair." However, in a 1999 interview in The Guardian, Kinski was quoted as saying that there was no affair and that "there was a flirtation. There could have been a seduction, but there was not. He had respect for me."
Kinski has three children from different relationships. Her first child, a son, was fathered by actor Vincent Spano, her co-star in Maria's Lovers.Kinski: No añoro el cine Marta Cervera Barcelona, El Periódico de Catalunya, 16 December 2011 On 10 September 1984, Kinski married Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim Moussa, with whom she had daughter Sonja Kinski. The marriage was dissolved in July 1992. From 1992 until 1995, Kinski lived with musician Quincy Jones, though she kept her own apartment on Hilgard Avenue, near UCLA, at the time.Daily Bruin, Monday, 16 January 1995, p. 8 They had a daughter, Kenya Julia Niambi Sarah Jones, a model known professionally as Kenya Kinski-Jones.
In 1997, Kinski dated married producer Jonathan D. Krane during a brief separation from his wife, actress Sally Kellerman.New York Daily News, 7 January 1998 Over the course of her career, Kinski has also been romantically linked with Paul Schrader, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Rob Lowe, Jon Voight, Gérard Depardieu, Dudley Moore, Miloš Forman and Wim Wenders. As of 2012, she was dating actor Rick Yune.
In 2001, Kinski stated in an interview in The Daily Telegraph that she was affected by the sleep disorder narcolepsy.
Filmography + Cinema feature films Year Title Role Notes 1975 The Wrong Move Mignon 1976 To the Devil a Daughter Catherine Beddows 1978 Passion Flower Hotel Deborah Collins Stay as You Are Francesca 1979 Tess Tess 1981 One from the Heart Leila 1982 Cat People Irena Gallier 1983 Spring Symphony Clara Wieck Exposed Elizabeth Carlson Moon in the Gutter Loretta Channing 1984 Unfaithfully Yours Daniella Eastman The Hotel New Hampshire Susie the Bear Paris, Texas Jane Henderson Maria's Lovers Maria Bosic 1985 Harem Diane Revolution Daisy McConnahay 1987 Maladie d'amour Juliette 1988 Magdalene Magdalene 1989 Torrents of Spring Maria Nikolaevna Polozov Crystal or Ash, Fire or Wind, as Long as It's Love Joëlle Lavoisier 1990 The Secret Lucia The Sun Also Shines at Night Cristina 1991 Humiliated and Insulted Natasha Ikhmenyeva L'alba Karin 1992 In camera mia Nastienka L'envers du décor: Portrait de Pierre Guffroy Herself Documentary film 1993 The Blonde Christine Faraway, So Close! Raphaela 1994 Crackerjack K. C. Terminal Velocity Chris Morrow / Krista Moldova 1996 Somebody Is Waiting Charlotte Ellis 1997 Fathers' Day Collette Andrews Little Boy Blue Kate West Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's Herself Documentary film; uncredited One Night Stand Karen 1998 Your Friends & Neighbors Cheri Susan's Plan Susan Holland Savior Maria Rose Playing by Heart The Lawyer Uncredited Ciro norte Venus Short 1999 The Lost Son Deborah The Intruder Badge Muller 2000 The Magic of Marciano Katie Time Share Dr. Julia Weiland The Claim Elena Dillon 2001 Cold Heart Linda Cross Town & Country Alex An American Rhapsody Margit .com for Murder Sondra Diary of a Sex Addict Jane Bordeaux Video Say Nothing Grace Beyond the City Limits Misha 2003 Paradise Found Mette Gauguin 2004 À ton image Mathilde 2006 Inland Empire The Lady 2007 More Things That Happened The Lady Part of the Inland Empire DVD; uncredited 2013 Sugar Sister Nadia Il turno di notte lo fanno le stelle Sonia Short 2015 Dietro gli occhiali bianchi Herself Documentary film 2018 Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast Herself Documentary film 2022 Dark Satellites Birgitt 2023 LasVegas Ilse von Lossberg 2025 Im Zeichen des Drachen Anja 2026 Music in the Forest Marie Post-production Hijamat Margot