Roman Polanski: a life touched by tragedy and controversy

Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski was arrested in Zurich as he arrived to collect a lifetime achievement award from the city's film festival Photograph: David Fisher /Rex Features

The film festival organisers expressed 'great dismay and sadness' at the arrest but stressed they would go ahead with the planned retrospective of his work and present his award on another date Photograph: Sebastien Bozon/AFP/Getty Images

Others have been quick to condemn the arrest. French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand said he was 'dumbfounded' by Polanski's arrest, adding that he 'strongly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already experienced so many of them'. The Swiss Directors' Association also criticised the authorities over what it described as 'not only a grotesque farce of justice, but also an immense cultural scandal' Photograph: Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images

In 1977, the then 43-year-old Polanski, seen here with his attorney Douglas Dalton, pled guilty to a charge of unlawful sex with 13-year-old Samantha Gailey (now Geimer). He had originally been indicted on five other charges, including giving Quaaludes to a minor and sodomy, but these were dismissed under the terms of his plea bargain. Polanski fled the country before he could be sentenced Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Late last year, Polanski's lawyers sought a dismissal of the case following new evidence brought to light by the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired Photograph: Nick Ut/AP

Samantha Geimer, seen here at the Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired premiere in New York, publicly forgave the director in 1997, and in January 2009 renewed her calls for a speedy end to the case. She protested about the 'lurid claims' that had been made and even offered to take Polanski's place in court Photograph: Peter Kramer/AP

This was not the first time controversy and tragedy had touched the director's life. Roman Polanski, pictured here in 1984, was born in Paris in 1933, but his family returned to Poland shortly before the outbreak of the second world war and were forced into the Krakow ghetto with thousands of other Jewish families. He escaped in 1943, but his parents were shipped to concentration camps, and his mother died in Auschwitz Photograph: /Sipa Press/Rex Features

After the war, Polanski attended the Polish film school in Lodz and graduated in 1959. He moved to Hollywood in 1968 – he's seen here with Paramount mogul Robert Evans, who produced some of Polanski's best films such as Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/USA Films/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

In 1967, Polanski met rising US actor Sharon Tate in London – he was prepping The Fearless Vampire Killers and she would put in an acclaimed performance in Valley of the Dolls that year Photograph: /AFP/Getty Images

In January 1968, they were married in London's swinging Chelsea Photograph: Rex Features/Rex Features

On the night of 8 August 1969, when she was eight and a half months pregnant with their first child, Tate and four others were murdered by members of the Charles Manson 'family' at her home in Cielo Drive. Polanski said that he was 'the happiest I ever was in my life' in their brief time together Photograph: ROM/AP

Polanski later married French actor Emmanuelle Seigner in 1989. They have two children Photograph: Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images

In 2002, Polanski again made the news, but this time for the right reasons. His film The Pianist, based on Polish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoir of surviving the Warsaw ghetto, was feted at the Cannes film festival and went on to win the Oscars for best actor, director and adapted screenplay Photograph: Cavassi/Morandi/Rex Features/AGF

Mia Farrow (centre) and Deborah Tate (left), sister of Sharon Tate, the late wife of Roman Polanski, are seen leaving the high court in London in 2005 after attending the libel case brought by Polanski against Vanity Fair magazine for alleging that he propositioned a woman shortly after Sharon Tate's murder. Polanski won and was awarded £50,000 in damages Photograph: Sean Smith/Guardian

For now, Polanski, seen here promoting his Dance of the Vampires in 2006, is said to be 'in good spirits' while his lawyers fight extradition to the US Photograph: Arnd Weigmann/Reuters