Eugeniusz Bodo, born Bogdan Eugène Junod on 28 December 1899 in Geneva, was a Polish-Swiss singer, actor, dancer, screenwriter, director and film producer. He began his professional stage career at the Apollo Theatre in Poznań before performing in Warsaw cabarets including Qui Pro Quo and Morskie Oko. He made his film debut in Rywale (1925) and became one of the leading stars of interwar Polish cinema, appearing in films including Jego ekscelencja subiekt (1933), Czy Lucyna to dziewczyna? (1934), and Piętro wyżej (1937). His film performances popularized songs such as “Już taki jestem zimny drań,” “Sex Appeal,” and “Umówiłem się z nią na dziewiątą.” Bodo co-founded the B.W.B. film studio in 1931 and established his own production company, Urania, in 1933. In 1938, he received the Gold Cross of Merit for his contribution to Polish cinema. After the outbreak of World War II, he moved to Lwów, where he performed with Henryk Wars’s Tea-Jazz ensemble and recorded Russian-language songs. He was arrested by the NKVD in 1941, sentenced to five years of forced labor in 1942, and died in a Soviet labor camp in Kotlas on 7 October 1943.
