| Bekim Fehmiu | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 June 1936 Sarajevo, Yugoslavia |
| Died | 15 June 2010 (aged 74) Belgrade, Serbia |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1953–1998 |
Bekim Fehmiu (Serbo-Croatian: Bekim Fehmiju, Беким Фехмију; 1 June 1936 – 15 June 2010) was a Yugoslavian theater and film actor of Albanian ethnicity.[1][2][3] He was the first Eastern European actor to star in Hollywood during the Cold War.[4]
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Fehmiu was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina to Albanian parents. He spent his childhood in the city of Prizren, Kosovo. His family permanently moved to Kosovo, where, as a 20-year-old amateur boxer and manual worker, he was advised to apply to an acting academy because of his good looks.[4] He graduated from the Faculty of Drama Arts (FDU) in Belgrade.
His big break was the 1967 film I Even Met Happy Gypsies, a subtle portrayal of Roma life which won two awards in Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar. Known for his macho appearance and mild manner, Fehmiu was then wooed by Western filmmakers and signed a contract with the Academy Award winning producer Dino De Laurentiis For the 1970 Hollywood epic The Adventurers, co-starring Charles Aznavour and Candice Bergen, he learnt English in three months. He played the role of the busy father in Raimondo Del Balzo's heartbreaking film L'Ultima Neve Di Primavera in 1973. Noteworthy is the film's music score by Franco Micalizzi. By the end of his career he had acted in nine languages, including French, Spanish and Italian.[4] In 1974 Fehmiu appeared in the tile role The Adventures of Ulysses, with Irene Papas as Penelope, and in John Frankenheimer's Black Sunday, where he played the role of a Palestinian terrorist alongside Robert Shaw and Marthe Keller.
The New York Times dubbed him the "Yugoslav heart-throb" for his youthful conquests and acquaintances with the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Ava Gardner. Decades after his last appearance on the screen, readers of a leading Italian women's magazine voted him one of the ten most attractive men of the 20th century.[4]
Bekim Fehmiu appeared in 41 films between 1953 and 1998. Fehmiu was the first Albanian theater and film actor who acted in theaters and movies all over Yugoslavia, and he acted in a whole series of roles that changed the history of the Cinema of Yugoslavia and left a mark in the artistic developments abroad.
Fehmiu had a noted international career, acting alongside movie legends such as John Huston, Ava Gardner, Charles Aznavour, Irene Papas, Claudia Cardinale, Olivia de Havilland, Robert Shaw, Fernando Rey, Dirk Bogarde and Candice Bergen. Early appearances in numerous European films saw Fehmiu do well, but in 1970, he did the internationally released film The Adventurers, and the film failed to get audiences interested in either Fehmiu himself or the film's original author, Harold Robbins. After The Adventurers, critics said that "his American debut in a starring role with a huge, star-studded, international cast backing him up was poorly acted and the epic film a complete misfire. The Adventurers ruined any chances for Fehmiu to achieve similar stardom in Hollywood".[5]
Despite his Hollywood films achieving little critical success, he excelled mainly in European art house cinema as well as in the theatre, which was his natural medium.[4]
He acted in Serbo-Croatian, Albanian, Spanish, English, French, Italian and Macedonian.[6] In 1987 in protest at the Yugoslavian government's treatment of Kosovan Albanians, he walked off the stage at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade, during the play Madame Kollontai by Agneta Pleijel. He left the stage, and soon after, films.[7]
He was married to Serbian actress Branka Petrić. The couple had two sons and resided in the Zvezdara area of Belgrade.[8]
In 2001, Samizdat B92 published a book of Bekim Fehmiu's memoirs, entitled Blistavo i strašno (Brilliant and Terrifying), which describes his life until 1955, the year he became an actor.
Fehmiu was found dead on 15 June 2010 in his apartment in Belgrade. Initial reports stated he committed suicide.[9][10] Interior Minister Ivica Dačić said Fehmiu was found shot in his apartment and the gun was registered in Fehmiu's name.[11] He was 74 years old.
His body was cremated and the ashes were scattered in the river of Lumbardh, Prizren, Kosovo; where his family from his native Sarajevo was moved by turning a second home.[12]