Joanna Pacula

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Joanna Pacula (born Joanna Pacuła, sometimes credited as Ioana Pacula) (born January 2, 1957 in Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland) is a Polish actress.

In 1979 she graduated from The Theatre High School in Warsaw and joined Warsaw Teatr Dramatyczny where she acted until 1981. She started her career playing in productions of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Othello and As You Like It. She also found work in a handful of films, including Krzysztof Zanussi's Barwy ochronne/Camouflage (1977).

In 1981, Pacula was caught in Paris when communist authorities in Poland declared martial law. In 1982 she eventually emigrated to the USA (probably as an asylee) where she has specialized in playing European temptresses since her feature debut opposite William Hurt in Gorky Park (1983).

She acted the part of the exotic beauty in numerous American TV series and movies, including the Holocaust drama Escape From Sobibor (CBS, 1987), E.A.R.T.H. Force (CBS, 1990), and the TV series, The Colony (ABC, 1996).

She was featured in Marked for Death (1990) as an expert on Jamaican voodoo and gangs; Tombstone (1993) as Doc Holliday's lover, Kate (also known as Big Nose Kate and Mary Catherine Haroney, born November 7, 1850); in The Haunted Sea (1997); and in the movie Virus (1999), playing a Russian scientist. Currently she resides in Southern California.