Bekim Fehmiu

Bekim Fehmiu was born on the 1 st June 1936 and he died on the 15 th June 2010. He was a Yugoslavian film actor of Albanian ethnicity. H...

Bekim Fehmiu was born on the 1^st June 1936 and he died on the 15^th June 2010. He was a Yugoslavian film actor of Albanian ethnicity. He was the first Eastern European movie actor to appear in the Hollywood at the time of the Cold War.

source of picture: www.aveleyman.com

Early Life

Fehmiu was born in Sarajevo, Kingdom of Yugoslavia to parents that are from Albania. His family is a descendant of a noble family of Imerhalili from the town of Gjakova on Kosovo. In the year 1941, his family permanently relocated to Prizren in Kosovo, and it was there that he spent his childhood life. He was a member of the acting club in the high school in Prizren and when he graduated he became a member of the county famous theatre of Pristina, the only professional Albanian language theatre in Yugoslavia. He finished from the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade in the year 1960.

Acting Life

In the year 1960, Fehmiu joined the Yugoslavian Drama Theatre in Belgrade and he left there in the year 1967 because of bad treatment, to become a free artist.

His big break was the film that was acted in the year 1967, I Even Met Happy Gypsies, a subtly exhibition of the Roma life that gained two awards in Cannes and was selected for an Oscar. He was popular for his Macho appearance and mild manner; though he was wooed by the western movie makers and then he signed a contract with the Academy Award winning manufacturer, Dino De Laurentiis. It was this same producer that cast him in the movie called Odysseus in the year 1968.

He seemed dignified for prominence in the Hollywood also, though his first American movie, The Adventure, was a critical and financial disaster that prevented him from gaining the prominence in the Hollywood. He payed the role of a busy father in Raimondo Del Balzo's distressing movie called The Last Snows of Spring in the year 1973. He played the role of a Palestinian terrorist in John Frankenheimer's chef-d'oeuvre Black Sunday in the year 1977.

Legacy

The New York Times labeled him the "Yugoslav heart-throb" because of his youthful subjugation and connections with people like Brigitte Bardot and Ava Gardner. Years after his last appearance on the movie screen, readers of a leading Italian women’s magazine chose him to be one of the most attractive men of the 20^th century. He was seen in 41 films from the year 1953 to the year 1998. He was the first Albanian theatre and film actor to act in the theatres and films all over Yugoslavia and he performed in the entire series of roles that altered the history of Cinema in Yugosavia.

Personal Life

Bekim Fehmiu was married to a Serbian Actress, Branka Petric. They had two sons together, Hedon and Uliks.Uliks Fehmiu is also an actor.

Autobiography

In the year 2001, Samizdat B92 produced a book of Fehmiu’s memoirs called Blistavo i strašno that describes his life until the year 1955, which is the year he became an actor.

Death

He was found dead on the 15^th June 2010 in his house in Belgrade. Initial reports opined that he commited suiside. Interior Minister of the country, Ivaca dacic opined that the actor was found shot in his house and the gun was registered with the actors name. he died at the age of 72. His body was cremated and the ashes from his body was scattered in the river in Prizren.