Roman Polanski

Movie director Roman Polanski, photographed here at the European Film Awards in Rome in 2002, is at the center of a legal tug-of-war after Swiss police arrested him Sept. 26, 2009, on an international warrant as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award from a film festival. He is wanted in the United States for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.

Actress Sigourney Weaver poses after receiving an award for her lifetime career as Polish-born filmmaker and Academy Award winner Roman Polanski applauds during a ceremony at the Marrakech Film Festival Nov. 16, 2008. Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France, where his career has continued to flourish; he received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie "The Pianist."

Italian director Matteo Garrone receives the Grand Prix from Roman Polanski at the 2008 International film festival in Cannes. The U.S. has had an outstanding warrant on Polanski since 1978, American authorities reportedly have sought the director's arrest only since 2005. Polanski has asked a U.S. appeals court in California to overturn a judges' refusal to throw out his case.

Roman Polanski and his wife, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner, arrive at the Elysee Palace for a ceremony Oct.1, 2007, in Paris. The couple has two children. Filmmakers around the world are pleading with U.S. authorities to release the filmmaker.

Roman Polanski, right, poses with director David Lynch, left, and actress Emily Stofle, in Paris in 2007. Born in 1933 in France to Polish parents who returned to their native land just before World War II, Polanski escaped Krakow's Jewish ghetto as a child during World War II and lived off the charity of strangers. His half-Jewish mother died at the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp. His father survived the camps.

Roman Polanski, left, smiles as Artfilm International Festival director and Slovak actor Milan Lasica, right, looks on at the Honour Bridge in Trencianske Teplice, Slovakia, on Friday, June 29, 2007. Polanski was awarded the festival's Golden Camera prize. Polanski, who came to fame directing 1968's "Rosemary's Baby," has been nominated for an Oscar four times and has won more than 50 film awards.

Polanski, president of the jury, gestures to a photographer the sixth Marrakesh International Film Festival, in Marrakesh Morocco Friday, Dec. 8, 2006. His 1974 movie "Chinatown" was nominated for 11 Oscars, including Best Director and won Best Original Screenplay for writer Robert Towne.

Roman Polanski, right, and actress Sylvia Lambertoni pose for photographers in Berlin, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006. Polanski was promoting his successful musical "Tanz der Vampire - Das Grusical" which premiered in Berlin, Dec. 10, 2006. Since fleeing to Europe, he has done a lot of work in theater.

Roman Polanski listens to a reporter during a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005. Polanski was in Bangkok to attend the 3rd World Film Festival, which showed the Asian premiere of his movie "Oliver Twist."

Polanski listens to a reporter during a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005. Polanski was in Bangkok to attend the 3rd World Film Festival, which showed the Asian premiere of his movie "Oliver Twist." That was his last ful-length movie. His next "The Ghost" is due out in 2010.

Polanski listens during a media presentation in Berlin, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006. Polanski's successful musical "Tanz der Vampire - Das Grusical" premiered there on Dec. 10, 2006.

Roman Polanski, right, receives his Oscar from American actor Harrison Ford, at the 29th American Film Festival of Deauville in France on Sept. 7, 2003. Polanski won the best director Oscar earlier that year for his film "The Pianist." He also was nominated for "Chinatown," "Rosemary's Baby" and 1981's "Tess."

Roman Polanski, right, poses with, from left, directors Wim Wenders and Chen Kaige, actress Juliette Binoche, and directors Manuel de Oliveira, and Jane Campion at the 60th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Sunday, May 20, 2007.

Roman Polanski, right, poses with his second wife, American actress Sharon Tate. Eight months pregnant with their first child, Tate was murdered by Charles Manson's cult in her Beverly Hills home in 1969. Polanski was out of town on business at the time.