On the night of August 8 to 9, 1969, Sharon Tate lost her life in a terrible way in her Californian villa with three other friends, while a visitor also died. They are the five victims of the followers of the The Family sect led by Charles Manson. At the time, the 26-year-old high-profile actress was eight months pregnant. A drama for her husband at the time, who is none other than the filmmaker Roman Polanski. Why was the latter not present during the tragedy?
In that summer month of the late 1970s, Roman Polanski was already boasting of a flourishing career. He already has to his credit works that have become classics: Repulsion with Catherine Deneuve and Rosemary’s Baby in which he spins Mia Farrow. He was also the one who made The Vampire Ball, feature film which allowed him to meet Sharon Tate. While under contract with the company that produced the film, she was imposed by the producer to the chagrin of the director who rather saw the James Bond Girl Jill St John for the role. A pressure that will turn into love at first sight for the filmmaker and the actress. In 1968, the lovebirds married during a frenzied party in London, it was the mad love between Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski.
A few months later, Sharon Tate becomes pregnant. She accompanies her husband during a trip to Europe for the preparation of his next film but returns to America for the rest of her pregnancy. The director continues his work for this feature film in the United Kingdom, adaptation of the novel of anticipation by Robert Merle An animal endowed with reason. A film project which will be abandoned by the director, after the savage murder of his wife. It was eventually picked up by Mike Nichols under the title Dolphin Day.
Still so painful
The death of Sharon Tate, who begged to stay alive for her baby and was stabbed sixteen times, shattered Roman Polanski’s life. On the day of Charles Manson’s death in 2017, he could not react, leaving his lawyer to speak: “The murder of Roman Polanski’s wife and their unborn baby still remains painful and prevents him from reacting to the death of Charles Manson. He hopes one day to correct the legal process underway in Los Angeles to have the right to pray at his grave in Holy Cross Cemetery.“Indeed, he cannot return across the Atlantic, where he would risk being imprisoned for the case of the alleged rape of Samantha Geimer in 1977.
Married since 1989 to actress Emmanuelle Seigner with whom he had two children, Elvis (24) and Morgane (29), he spoke about the drama in Sharon Tate: Recollection by Debra Tate, the book written by the victim’s sister: “At that timewrites Polanski. She was not only the love of my life, she was the love of the whole audience. Sharon was not naive, or stupid, or the clichéd starlet. What impressed me about her, beyond her incredible beauty, was the radiance that emanated from her because of her deep kindness.“