This strikingly attractive lead, with pouty lips and a slightly haughty manner, is best known for her performance in the title role in Roman Polanski's sumptuous "Tess" (1979) as well as for her screen collaborations with Wim Wenders: a silent role in "Falsche Bewegung/Wrong Move" (1975); the estranged wife of Harry Dean Stanton (her most affecting performance to date) in "Paris, Texas" (1984); and an angelic presence in "Faraway, So Close" (1993).

The daughter of actor Klaus Kinski (with whom she had little contact after the age of 10) and sister of actress Pola Kinski, Nastassja (billed as Nastassia in the USA in the early 80s) was a teenager when she met and fell in love with director Roman Polanski, 25 years her senior. Under his spell, she went to the USA for six months to study "The Method" with Lee Strasberg. Then, Polanski put Kinski in her star-making role, of "Tess". In the film based on the Thomas Hardy novel "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", Kinski played a girl from a poor background whose fortunes rise and fall after she is thrust into "polite" society. The film established her and she furthered raised her profile by posing for photographer Richard Avedon, who shot a nude poster of the actress and a snake that became the rage of college dorm rooms.

Kinski moved into American films, such as Francis Ford Coppola's uneven "One From the Heart" and opposite Malcolm McDowell in "Cat People" (both 1982), both of which made her raw, reactive sensuality briefly the rage. But Kinski's free-spirited, sex-charged yet aloof screen persona did not click with US audiences. She seemed content to retain a low-key presence and appeared in films on both sides of the Atlantic. The same year she played pianist Clara Wieck in "Frulingssinfonie/Spring Symphony" (1983), Kinski starred in "The Moon in the Gutter" for French director Jean-Jacques Beineix, with whom she was linked romantically. But her performance--as a wealthy woman involved with Gerard Depardieu--was almost universally panned. She fared better with the critics as the wife in Wenders' "Paris, Texas", but that film was limited to an art-house crowd.

In 1984, she starred in two Hollywood productions, neither of which won widespread audience attention. Kinski was cast as the wife whom Dudley Moore thought was philandering in the unsatisfying remake "Unfaithfully Yours" and was alongside Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe in Tony Richardson's "The Hotel New Hampshire". She was miscast as the love interest to Al Pacino caught up into the colonial dispute with Britain in Hugh Hudson's box-office dud "Revolution" (1985). Most of her subsequent films in the 80s and into the early 90s were little seen in the USA including the American ones.

But Kinski's profile in American gossip columns and tabloids skyrocketed in the 90s when she gave birth and named Quincy Jones as the father of her daughter, Kenya Julia. Their relationship became fodder for tabloid reports and made Kinski more well-known than all her films combined. Her acting services were in greater demand and she scored a critical success as the skydiving student of Charlie Sheen's who appears to have died on her first jump--but has not--in "Terminal Velocity" (1994). Her work in US films then became more mainstream. She was the mother of a runaway teen who may be the son of either Robin Williams or Billy Crystal in the genial comedy "Father's Day" (1997). That same year, the busy actress co-starred with Ryan Phillippe and John Savage in "Little Boy Blue", a study of incest and dysfunction in a Texas family, and was opposite Wesley Snipes in Mike Figgis' study of marriage and infidelity, "One Night Stand".

In the mid-90s, Kinski also began to appear with some regularity on American TV. She was involved in a diamond heist in "Crackerjack" (HBO, 1994) and played a German war widow who flees to the USA to start life anew in "Danielle Steel's 'The Ring'" (NBC, 1996).

from movies.yahoo.com

  "La Femme Musketeer" (2004) (mini) TV Series .... Lady Bolton
À ton image (2004) .... Mathilde
"Liaisons dangereuses, Les" (2003) (mini) TV Series .... Madame Maria de Tourvel
... aka Dangerous Liaisons (USA)
Paradise Found (2003) .... Mette Gauguin
All Around the Town (2002) (TV) .... Karen Grant
... aka Nous n'irons plus au bois (Canada: French title) (France)
... aka Mary Higgins Clark's 'All Around the Town' (USA: complete title)
.com for Murder (2002) .... Sondra Brummel
Beyond the City Limits (2001) .... Misha
... aka Rip It Off (USA: video title)
The Day the World Ended (2001) (TV) .... Dr. Jennifer Stillman
Diary of a Sex Addict (2001) .... Dr. Jane Bordeaux
Say Nothing (2001) .... Grace Needham
... aka Piège d'une liaison, Le (Canada: French title)
An American Rhapsody (2001) .... Margit Sandor
... aka Amerikai rapszódia (Hungary)
Town & Country (2001) .... Alex
Blind Terror (2001) (TV) .... Susan
Cold Heart (2001) .... Linda Cross
The Claim (2000) .... Elena Burn/Elena Dillon
... aka Maître de Kingdom Come, Le (Canada: French title)
... aka Rédemption (France)
Time Share (2000) .... Dr. Julia Weland
... aka Bitter Suite (UK)
... aka Time Share (Germany: DVD title)
... aka Time Share - Doppelpack im Ferienhaus (Germany: TV title)
... aka Timeshare (Germany)
Red Letters (2000) .... Lydia Davis
The Magic of Marciano (2000) .... Katie
A Storm in Summer (2000) (TV) .... Gloria Ross

The Intruder (1999/I) .... Badge Muller
The Lost Son (1999) .... Deborah Spitz
Quarantine (1999) (TV) .... Dr. Galen Bronty
Playing by Heart (1998) (uncredited) .... The Lawyer
Susan's Plan (1998) .... Susan Holland
... aka Dying to Get Rich (USA: video title)
Your Friends & Neighbors (1998) .... Cheri
Savior (1998) (as Nastassia Kinski) .... Maria Rose
Ciro norte (1998) .... Venus
Bella Mafia (1997) (TV) .... Sophia Luciano
One Night Stand (1997) .... Karen
Little Boy Blue (1997) .... Kate West
Fathers' Day (1997) .... Collette Andrews
Somebody Is Waiting (1996) .... Charlotte Ellis
The Ring (1996/I) (TV) .... Ariana von Gotthard
... aka Danielle Steel's 'The Ring'
Terminal Velocity (1994) .... Chris Morrow
Crackerjack (1994) .... Katia 'K.C.' Koslovska
In weiter Ferne, so nah! (1993) .... Raphaela
... aka Faraway, So Close! (USA)
Bionda, La (1992) .... Christine
... aka The Blonde
In camera mia (1992) .... Nastienka
Unizhennye i oskorblyonnye (1991) (as Anastasiya Kinski) .... Natasha
... aka The Insulted and the Injured
... aka Umiliati e offesi (Italy)
Sole anche di notte, Il (1990) .... Cristina
... aka Night Sun
... aka Soleil même la nuit, Le (France)
... aka Sunshine Even by Night
Segreto, Il (1990) .... Lucia
... aka The Secret
Alba, L' (1990) .... Karin
... aka Dawn

In una notte di chiaro di luna (1989) .... Joëlle
... aka As Long as It's Love
... aka Clair (France)
... aka Crystal or Ash, Fire or Wind, as Long as It's Love
... aka On a Moonlit Night
Torrents of Spring (1989) .... Maria
... aka Acque di primavera (Italy)
... aka Eaux printanières, Les (France: dubbed version)
Magdalene (1989) .... Magdalene
... aka Silent Night
Maladie d'amour (1987) .... Juliette
... aka Malady of Love (International: English title)
Harem (1985) .... Diane
Revolution (1985) .... Daisy McConnahay
Maria's Lovers (1984) .... Maria Bosic
Paris, Texas (1984) .... Jane
The Hotel New Hampshire (1984) .... Susie the Bear
Unfaithfully Yours (1984) .... Daniella Eastman
Lune dans le caniveau, La (1983) .... Loretta
... aka Specchio del desiderio, Lo (Italy)
... aka The Moon in the Gutter (USA)
Exposed (1983) .... Elizabeth Carlson
Frühlingssinfonie (1983) .... Clara Wieck
... aka Spring Symphony
Cat People (1982) .... Irena Gallier
One from the Heart (1982) .... Leila

Tess (1979) .... Tess Durbeyfield
Così come sei (1978) .... Francesca
... aka Así como eres (Spain)
... aka Stay as You Are (USA)
... aka Stay the Way You Are
Leidenschaftliche Blümchen (1978) .... Deborah Collins
... aka Boarding School
... aka Passion Flower Hotel
... aka Preppy School Girls (USA: video title)
... aka Virgin Campus
Tatort - Reifezeugnis (1977) (TV) .... Sina Wolf
... aka For Your Love Only (USA)
To the Devil a Daughter (1976) .... Catherine
... aka Braut des Satans, Die (West Germany)
... aka Child of Satan (USA: video title)
... aka To the Devil... a Daughter (USA: poster title)
Falsche Bewegung (1975) (as Nastassja Nakszynski) .... Mignon