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person_profile-Bekim Fehmiu

Bekim Fehmiu Died at age: 74

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Bekim Fehmiu

Date of Birth:

Jun 02, 1936

Country of birth:

Bosnia And Herzegovina

Died:

Jun 15, 2010

Biography of

Bekim Fehmiu

    Bekim Fehmiu (Albanian: [bɛˈkim fɛhˈmiu]; 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.

    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 parts of 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". In 1971, Fehmiu starred in the western action drama The Deserter, directed by Burt Kennedy. In 1973 he played the role of the busy father in Raimondo Del Balzo's heartbreaking film The Last Snows of Spring, and then in 1975 played the role of ex-politician Alexander Diakim in the movie Permission to Kill, with Ava Gardner and Dirk Bogarde. In 1976, Fehmiu starred as fictional murdered Luftwaffe pilot, Hans Reiter in Tinto Brass's film, Salon Kitty alongside Helmut Berger, Ingrid Thulin and Teresa Ann Savoy. He portrayed a Palestinian terrorist in John Frankenheimer's 1977 political thriller, Black Sunday. Despite his Hollywood films achieving little success, he did well in European art house cinema as well as in the theatre, the latter being his preferred medium. He portrayed the father of Mother Teresa, Nikola Boyaxhiu, in the 1982 film La Voce (The Voice). He acted as Joseph in the Italian production A Child Called Jesus (1987). He was to have acted in the movie Genghis Khan (1992), but it was ultimately never made.

    In 1987, in protest at the Yugoslavian government's treatment of Kosovar 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, film.

    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 Prizren Bistrica in Prizren, his childhood home.

    Description above from the Wikipedia article Bekim Fehmiu, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Photos of

Bekim Fehmiu

Photos ( 1 Photos

Filmography of

Bekim Fehmiu

Found 38 Movies in total

Bekim Fehmiu

Himself (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 2023

Heart and Sword

Gormond ( Actor )

... 1998

A Child Called Jesus

Joseph ( Actor )

... 1987

The Red and the Black

Ivan Pipan ( Actor )

... 1985

The Balad of Mamelouk

Ruler ( Actor )

... 1982

The Voice

Nicolay ( Actor )

... 1982

Broad Are the Leaves

Baja ( Actor )

... 1981

The Battle of the Eagles

Major Dragan ( Actor )

... 1979

Arrive Before Daybreak

Esad Ljumi ( Actor )

... 1978

Special Education

Žarko Munižaba ( Actor )

... 1977

Black Sunday

Fasil ( Actor )

... 1977

Ready for Anything

Marco ( Actor )

... 1977

Salon Kitty

Hans Reiter ( Actor )

... 1976

Permission to Kill

Alexander Diakim ( Actor )

... 1975

Pavle Pavlovic

Pavle Pavlović ( Actor )

... 1975

Libera, My Love

Sandro Poggi ( Actor )

... 1975

Cagliostro

Count Alexander Cagliostro / Giuseppe Balsamo ( Actor )

... 1975

The Wind

Adam Milovanović ( Actor )

... 1974

Silence the Witness

Il dottor Giorgio Sironi ( Actor )

... 1974

Deps

Deps ( Actor )

... 1974

Il gioco della verità

Alberto Santoro ( Actor )

... 1974

The Last Snows of Spring

Roberto ( Actor )

... 1973

The Reichstag Fire

Georgi Dimitrov ( Actor )

... 1972

A Trap for the General

Doktor, obaveštajac OZNE ( Actor )

... 1971

The Deserter

Captain Victor Kaleb ( Actor )

... 1970

The Adventurers

Dax Xenos ( Actor )

... 1970

... 1968

Odissea

Ulisse ( Actor )

... 1968

Protest

Ivo Bajšić ( Actor )

... 1967

... 1967

The Feverish Years

Mirko ( Actor )

... 1966

The Time of Love

Milija, trubač (segment "Put") ( Actor )

... 1966

The Swarm

Halil Beg ( Actor )

... 1966

Klaxon

Marko ( Actor )

... 1965

... 1965

... 1965

Under the Same Sky

Kerim ( Actor )

... 1964

Sasha

Marić, poručnik Kraljevske vojske ( Actor )

... 1962