Resting place Cremated Name Bekim Fehmiu Role Film actor | Occupation Actor Spouse Branka Petric (m. ?–2010) Years active 1953–1998 | |
 | ||
Children Uliks Fehmiu, Hedon Fehmiu Parents Ibrahim Fehmiu, Hedia Fehmiu Movies I Even Met Happy Gypsies, The Adventurers, The Deserter, Special Education, A Child Called Jesus Similar People Uliks Fehmiu, Branka Petric, Franco Rossi, Faruk Begolli, Giorgio Stegani | ||
Bekim Fehmiu (1936-2010) and family photos with friends and relatives
Bekim Fehmiu (Serbian Cyrillic: Беким Фехмију; 1 June 1936 – 15 June 2010) was a Yugoslavian theater and film actor of Albanian ethnicity. He was the first Eastern European actor to star in Hollywood during the Cold War.
Contents
- Bekim Fehmiu1936 2010 and family photos with friends and relatives
- Bekim fehmiu 1936 2010 gjakova i love albania
- Early life
- Acting career
- Personal life
- Death
- Legacy
- References
Bekim fehmiu 1936 2010 gjakova i love albania
Early life
Fehmiu was born in Sarajevo, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, into an ethnic Albanian family. His father Ibrahim adopted his high-school nickname Fehmiu as a surname replacing the original Imer Halili. The family moved to Shkoder, Albania, where they spent three years, and in 1941 to Prizren, Kosovo, where Bekim spent his childhood. He was part of the acting club at his high school in Prizren, and after graduation he became a member of County Popular Theatre in Pristina, the only professional Albanian language theatre in Yugoslavia. He graduated from the Faculty of Drama Arts (FDU) in Belgrade in 1960.
Acting career
In 1960, Fehmiu became a member of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade, which he left in 1967, citing bad treatment, to become a free artist.
Fehmiu's 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. It was De Laurentiis who, in 1968, cast him as Odysseus in the acclaimed mini-series of The Odyssey. It was the first blockbuster of Italian television and made Fehmiu an icon in Europe.
Fehmiu seemed poised for stardom in Hollywood as well, but his first American film, The Adventurers, was a critical and financial disaster which "ruined any chances for Fehmiu to achieve similar stardom in Hollywood". He played the role of the busy father in Raimondo Del Balzo's heartbreaking film The Last Snows of Spring in 1973, and the role of a Palestinian terrorist in John Frankenheimer's 1977 masterpiece Black Sunday. Despite his Hollywood films achieving little critical success, he excelled in European art house cinema as well as in the theatre, which was his natural medium. By the end of his career he had acted in nine languages, including French, Spanish and Italian.
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.
Personal life
Fehmiu was married to Serbian actress Branka Petrić. The couple had two sons, Hedon and Uliks (b. 1968), and resided in the Zvezdara area of Belgrade. Uliks Fehmiu is also an actor.
Death
Fehmiu was found dead on 15 June 2010 in his apartment in Belgrade. Initial reports stated he committed suicide. Interior Minister Ivica Dačić said Fehmiu was found shot in his apartment and the gun was registered in Fehmiu's name. He was 74 years old. His body was cremated and the ashes were scattered in a river in Prizren, his childhood home.
Legacy
The New York Times dubbed Fehmiu 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.
Fehmiu appeared in 41 films between 1953 and 1998. He 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.
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.