Mija Aleksić

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Milisav "Mija" Aleksić (born September 26, 1923 in the village of Gornja Crnuća near Kragujevac; died March 12, 1995 in Belgrade) was a Serbian actor.

During World War II, when Axis powers occupied Yugoslavia, Mija Aleksić attended high school in Kragujevac. On October 21st, 1941, as a retaliation for guerilla activities, German occupation authorities committed one of the worst massacres in regional history, shooting few thousands, including entire classes of local high school students. Mija Aleksić managed to escape and was one of the few surviving men of his generation in his native town.

Mija Aleksić initially enrolled in law school. But he gradually discovered talent for acting. From the end of war till 1948 he worked in Kragujevac theatre. In 1951 he joined Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade, where he would stay until 1965. He than joined People's Theatre in Belgrade, where he stayed until retirement.

Although known for his drama talent, Mija Aleksić is best known as a comedian, and even better known as one of first actors whose career benefited from the new medium of television. In 1950s and 1960s, following the series of extremely popular sitcoms, he became one of the most popular entertainers of former Yugoslavia. Studio, the very first TV guide in history of the region, had his face on the cover its first issue in 1964. The popular TV sitcoms include "Servisna Stanica" (=Car repair station), "Ogledalo gradjanina Pokornog" (=The mirror of the citizen Pokorny) and others. Unfortunately, out of the impressive opus, only fragments (a few episodes) are preserved.

Mija Aleksic had also his TV Show, "Mija Show" and several episodes of this program have been preserved. He appeared in "Vaga za tacno merenje", an educative TV series for children. Also, he ad an interesting role of commenting political events in "Monitor", a TV newsmagazine from eighties.

Aleksić's popularity gradually declined, but he continued to work in 1970s and 1980s. One of his last great roles was in 1982 cult comedy Maratonci trče počasni krug. His last movie was "Tango argentino".