After her debut role in Tadeusz Chmielewski's comedy Ewa chce spać (1957) she gained wider popularity in Poland.

The role had been offered to her after she took the first place in a contest organized by a popular Polish cinema magazine.

In 1959 she left Poland for the West and soon starred in a few major films like La millième fenêtre (with Jean-Louis Trintignant) and The Joy of Living (with Alain Delon).

She played roles in several Italian, French and German films such as Krzysztof Zanussi's Bluebeard [pl] (1984) and in Sting in the Flesh [de] (1981).

Kwiatkowska-Lass divorced Böhm in 1980, and married Polish jazz musician Leszek Żądło, with whom she lived until her death.