https://www.reddit.com/r/theroom/comments/1vklp3/i_think_i_have_found_tommys_nationality_new/
created by ohbaimark on 19/01/2014 at 04:08 UTC*
410 upvotes, 31 top-level comments (showing 25)
I was just about to post a detailed 2 page analysis speculating as to Tommy's nationality when I discovered what may be the key to Tommy's nationality.
DISCLAIMER First off, Tommy Wiseau is American as he claims. A naturalized American citizen is no less American than someone born in America. So I mean no disrespect to Tommy in exploring his origins. But of course his accent and mannerisms indicate he came from another country originally. The fascinating part about Tommy is the contradiction in someone being so hellbent on becoming famous is also not willing to reveal even the most basic information about himself.
I respect people's privacy but at the same time Tommy is a public figure and furthermore this information was all public so someone else would have put together this information together eventually.
TOMMY'S ORIGINS I believe Tommy is Polish.
PROOF "T—— is calling himself Pierre now and often receives compliments on how quickly he’s learned to speak passable French." (Recent book about The Room, written by Mark(Greg Sestero), The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside the Room, pg 231) "Pierre is greeted in New Orleans by his uncle Stanley and his aunt Katherine, an American—the first real American Pierre’s ever met. He’s overwhelmed with joy and optimism. From New Orleans they travel to the small town of Chalmette" (The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside the Room, Greg Sestero, pg 238)
I did a search on obituaries for these names and the town and found obituaries for Tommy's uncle Stanley and aunt Katherine: http://stbernard.tributes.com/our_obituaries/Stanley-Wieczor-85392505[1] http://stbernard.tributes.com/our_obituaries/Kathleen-Edna-Wieczor-85392502[2]
1: http://stbernard.tributes.com/our_obituaries/Stanley-Wieczor-85392505
2: http://stbernard.tributes.com/our_obituaries/Kathleen-Edna-Wieczor-85392502
The obituary reveals that a Stanley Wieczor was married to Kathleen Rainey Wieczor, the services were held in the Succor Catholic Church, Chalmette, LA. So Tommy's surname is most likely Wieczor, which is very close to to Wiseau, and would be a combination of his nickname birdman (French oiseau + Wieczor = Wiseau).
Furthermore it says that Stanley is son of Zofia Abromovitz Wieczor and Stanislaus Wieczor. There are some other names mentioned such as his brother Nicodem. Some further searches on these names reveals: Wieczor - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wiecz%C3%B3r[3] - Polish Nicodem - http://www.behindthename.com/name/nicodemus[4] - Polish Zofia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zofia[5] - Polish
3: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wiecz%C3%B3r
4: http://www.behindthename.com/name/nicodemus
5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zofia
Being Polish would also match with several other points from the book:
1. Tommy is apparently from an Eastern Bloc country (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Bloc[6])
2. He is Roman Catholic, Poland 96.12% Catholic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_by_country[7])
3. First left his country to go to Berlin. Warsaw is close to Berlin and accessible by rail, most likely the first stop for a Pole traveling west.
In closing, I hope that if this does reveal Tommy's origins I hope he is alright with it. America is after all a country of immigrants.
6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Bloc
7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_by_country
Edit: Added some additional points, clarified others, spelling
TLDR: Recent book about the Room says when Tommy came to America he had a aunt and uncle in Chalmette, Louisiana, I found their obituaries and from that determined Tommy's last name was Wieczor which is Polish.
Comment by mzywiol at 13/02/2014 at 13:59 UTC
59 upvotes, 3 direct replies
I am Polish and I was a member of an English-speaking Toastmasters club in Kraków, Poland, for five years, so I have heard a lot of Polish people speaking English.
Tommy Wiseau in "The Room", interviews and in the dialogue from "Disaster Artist" makes many the same mistakes Polish people do (omitting "a" and "an", adding a lot of "the" before names of people and places, false-friends expressions, like "doing sex" or "you think about everything", etc.). Also, the way he speaks sounds very much the same as Polish people speaking English.
I actually was reading "The Disaster Artist" recently with this post in mind and highlighted places in the book that reinforce this theory (the most definite one was wearing socks under sandals - I'm wearing them right now ;)
I'm thinking about doing some more digging around locally about Tommy's origins.
Comment by [deleted] at 19/01/2014 at 08:25 UTC
59 upvotes, 2 direct replies
The safe has been opened... Tommy's origins is no longer a mystery...
What happened. I miss old times.
Comment by snatchbeast at 20/01/2014 at 19:40 UTC
58 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Keep your stupid comments in your pocket.
Comment by emby5 at 22/01/2014 at 12:38 UTC
27 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I do have an Ancestry account, and the record doesn't really add much. It basically says that Stanley Wieczor was naturalized in New Orleans on 5/17/1956, record #15536 and changed his name from Stanley Wieczorkiewicz. I've done a lot of Polish genealogy and his full name in Polish would be Stainsłav Więczorkiewicz.
I didn't find anything else of much use. He does not appear in the 1940 census, indicating that Stanley probably came over post WW2. The original record of his naturalization would be at NARA in Ft. Worth and the only thing of use would be it would likely contain his original birthplace in Poland.
Comment by Ivory_Compass at 03/07/2014 at 02:44 UTC
16 upvotes, 1 direct replies
still holding out for him being the zodiac killer
Comment by marcelinevampyrqueen at 19/01/2014 at 07:21 UTC
30 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Well done! I suspected Poland was his birthplace, especially after reading The Disaster Artist.
Comment by evi1eye at 19/01/2014 at 18:06 UTC
12 upvotes, 3 direct replies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCHoqPr6UXI
Close your eyes, does this not sound like Tommy Wiseau?
Comment by Bodymaster at 19/01/2014 at 16:17 UTC
23 upvotes, 1 direct replies
The uncle and aunt died within a day of each other. I wonder what happened there.
Comment by NO_thisispatrick_ at 19/01/2014 at 15:11 UTC
10 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Some journalist at a screening told me that there's some podcast out there that outs him as Polish. So there's another possible piece of evidence. Sorry I don't have more info. :P
Comment by nopurposeflour at 20/01/2014 at 02:23 UTC
18 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Oh hai evidence!
Comment by [deleted] at 26/03/2014 at 22:11 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
In terms of Polish names, Stanisław and Zofia (ie Stanley and Zofia) are very common, as are Wieczór and its derivatives as last names. But one thing to note is that Stanley's mother's maiden name is 'Abromovitz' - probably Abramowicz in Polish - which is unmistakably a Jewish name. -owicz is a common Polish ending, but 'Abram' relates it to Abraham, which indicates a surname adopted by a Jewish family, as was common practice at the time. Stanisław Wieczór shows no signs of religious or ethnic affiliation, but if at least part of Wiseau's family was Jewish, it could certainly explain some of his traumatic experiences in the late 50s or so, after the War, during which the Communists (and some of the native Polish population) treated the Jews who had survived the holocaust extraordinarily badly.
Comment by mudclub at 19/01/2014 at 10:30 UTC
14 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Damn - nice sleuthing!
Comment by sdnsdf at 21/01/2014 at 05:52 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Just asked my Polish boss he says that "Wieczor" means evening in Polish.
Comment by djhredditor at 23/01/2014 at 08:25 UTC
7 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I also have an ancestry.com account. The obituary says that Stanley was born in 1921. There's a Stanislaw Wieczorkiewicz born that year who came into New York on the George Leonard ship on July 25, 1946 via Liverpool and Belfast. I also found a record saying he then arrived by ship in New Orleans on December 18 of that year and was fined $10 for failing to deliver a form. Ancestry makes it confusing, but apparently this fine is listed on the rolls of the French embassy. I'm totally confused but it's all definitely intriguing. If I find out more, I'll post.
Comment by aebntest at 19/01/2014 at 09:08 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Seems legit.
Comment by wiseaus_stunt_double at 19/01/2014 at 17:38 UTC
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
That always bugged me for a while not knowing his origin. Good work. Now, only if we can get Tommy to confirm/deny this.
Comment by molldawg at 25/01/2014 at 01:11 UTC
5 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Could it be (after reading the Disaster Artist) Tommy hides his origins because he is an illegal immigrant? Why else would he care so much about his address being made public, et cetera? Idc if he is but according to Greg (Mark) in his stories about T---, T--- was hiding from immigration officials in what ever European country he was in as he made his way out of the Iron Curtain
Comment by [deleted] at 15/07/2014 at 15:36 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
If you look on genealogia.pl, you can see the link for Tommy's uncle, Stanisław Wieczorkiewicz, that someone has made. It has a little note that says 'lives in New Orleans, USA', and was last modified in 2011, before any of this went truly viral (if it ever did in Poland). You can see the record here http://genealogiapolska.pl/getperson.php?personID=ind00275&tree=Rosinski[1]. No sign of who Tommy might be in the Family Tree though...
1: http://genealogiapolska.pl/getperson.php?personID=ind00275&tree=Rosinski
Comment by sdnsdf at 21/01/2014 at 05:25 UTC
10 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I showed The Room to by boss who is Polish years ago and asked him about Tommy. His opinion based on his physic was that he is a Gypsy. If he was a Gypsy it might explain a few things about his interest in show biz mysterious past willingness to sleep rough. ect....
Comment by [deleted] at 21/01/2014 at 04:50 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
According to Greg Sestero, he is polish. Great work confirming it.
Comment by 80espiay at 27/02/2014 at 06:27 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
The next big question is what Tommy's original name was.
Comment by moredreadd at 12/03/2014 at 20:48 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This is a great find. Any hope of confirmation of his date of birth? From what I've managed to look up, it seems like October 3, 1955 is the one. Anyone can confirm/share their thoughts?
Comment by Odresfelt at 16/03/2014 at 19:07 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I have an ancestry.co.uk account. If you also have one, you can see a California crew list record - "port of departure: Honolulu; port of arrival: San Francisco" - for a Stanislaw Wieczorkiewicz who was born 'abt 1921' in Poznan, Poland: [ancestry.co.uk] (http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=1&new=1&MSAV=1&msT=1&gss=angs-g&gsfn=Stanislaw&gsln=Wieczorkiewicz&cpxt=1&catBucket=rstp&uidh=x9d&cp=0&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=901246&recoff=9+10&db=sfpl&indiv=1&ml_rpos=10[1]). The form includes a note that says: "He departed from San Pedro on a US Army Transport vessel and was hospitalized at Finchshaven, New Guinea. He was taken by a navy vessel to Honolulu but does not believe that he was examined by Immigration at that port. He is therefore treated as a seaman arriving from foreign [sic] at this port."
Comment by [deleted] at 21/01/2014 at 06:09 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I used to get a kick out of inviting first timers to see the Room and have them ask Tommy where he was from. It was so fun to see how defensive Tommy would get. "I am American what does it matter where I am from? Next question. " in that distinctive (polish) accent.
Comment by natiow59 at 24/01/2014 at 07:10 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Well done! I actually had guessed Hungarian when I first saw the movie, but this makes a lot of sense.