FACTBOX: Key facts on arrested film-maker Roman Polanski

ZURICH (Reuters) - Film-maker Roman Polanski was arrested at the request of the United States on trying to enter Switzerland on Saturday evening to receive a prize, the Zurich Film Festival said in a statement on Sunday.

Polanski's arrest was in connection with an arrest warrant issued by U.S. authorities in 1978 for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, the statement said.

Here are some key facts about Polanski:

* Born Raymond Polanski to Polish-Jewish parents on August 18, 1933, he spent the first three years of his life in Paris before the family returned to Poland.

* In World War Two when the Germans sealed off the Jewish ghetto in Krakow in 1940, his father shouted to Roman to run and he escaped. His mother later died in an Auschwitz gas chamber.

* His first full-length feature film after graduation, "Knife in the Water", won a number of awards and, most important for Polanski, was his ticket to the West.

* In August 1969, Polanski's wife, actress Sharon Tate, and six others, were hacked to death by followers of cult leader Charles Manson at his Hollywood home in a random attack.

* Polanski is wanted in the United States because in 1977 he pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl but skipped bail and fled to France before sentence was pronounced.

* Polanski won a best director Oscar for "The Pianist" in 2003 as well as the Cannes film festival's coveted Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) the year before. He has also directed such film classics as "Chinatown", "Repulsion" and "Rosemary's Baby".