happiness is a warm gun

 

Though a wildly successful director, a man of many talents and absolutely brilliant, Roman Polanski may have gotten the short end of the stick in many respects. 

Short End of the Stick #1

Shortly after moving from France to Poland, World War II broke out and German forces invaded,  forcing his family and thousands of other Jews into the Krakow Ghetto. Polanski escaped and went in hiding at a young age, his father was imprisoned in a concentration camp and survived, but his mother died at Auschwitz.

Short End of the Stick #2

In his mid 30s, while living in London, Polanski met and married the beautiful Sharon Tate. A year and a half later while prepping for a film in London, Tate and her unborn son along with four friends were murdered in their Los Angeles home by the Manson family. Before the Manson family was suspected, police questioned Polanski. 

Short End of the Stick #3

Nine years after the death of his wife, Polanski was accused of sexually assaulting a 13 year old girl. The presiding judge was a crooked, fame obsessed man that single-handedly managed to turn Polanski's case into a long, drawn out, media f-show. Polanski, doing what any right minded person would, skipped town before the sentencing (Polanski had already served time though the judge later ruled it was not enough and that a deportation was in order).

Short End of the Stick #4

Polanski fled to France, living, working and even winning an Oscar until 2009. More than thirty years after the sexual assault case, while traveling to Germany to accept a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival, Polanski was taken into custody by Swiss police at the request of U.S. authorities. House arrest and $4.5 million in bail later, the California Superior Court ruled Polanski must again return to California to be sentenced.

It's probably all the short sticks that's made for such a long and enduring career.