Rade Šerbedžija

Šerbedžija was born in the village of Bunić in the Lika region of Croatia, then part of Yugoslavia.[3] His parents were ethnic Serbs who fought in the Second World War as Partisans. Šerbedžija was raised an atheist.[4]

In 1969, he graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts of the University of Zagreb and then worked as a theatre actor in the City Drama Theatre Gavella and at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. While still a student, Šerbedžija started to play leading roles in films and theatre productions. He is remembered as an outstanding Peer Gynt, Don Juan, Melkior Tresić, Oedipus, Hamlet, Leone Glembay and Richard III. Šerbedžija was among the top actors in the former Yugoslavia, as well as an esteemed acting teacher at the Universities of Zagreb and Novi Sad.[5]

In 1964 he first visited the United States, where he enrolled in drama school. Small parts on stage followed for many years until his 1974 breakthrough performance as Hamlet at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival made him a star. Although he continued to appear in theatrical productions (notably, Peer Gynt and Oedipus Rex), Šerbedžija broke into films around the same time. Although many of the more than 40 features he has made in the 1970s and 80s have been little-seen outside of Yugoslavia, a handful have received widespread distribution. His early work included the starring role in The Republic of Užice (1974).[5]

He had various notable roles in Yugoslav film, among others in U gori raste zelen bor (1971), Variola Vera (1981), Kiklop (1982), Život je lep (1985). He was also among the leading actors in several TV series, such as in Prosjaci i sinovi (1971), U registraturi (1976), Nikola Tesla (1977), Putovanje u Vučjak (1986).

In 2000, Šerbedžija founded the Ulysses Theater with Borislav Vujčić on the Brijuni islands, where he also directs and acts in most plays. In a coproduction between the Ulysses Theatre and the National Theatre in Belgrade, he received widespread critical acclaim for his role in the 2019 adaptation of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, winning him the Croatian Theatre Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, the Orlando Award and the Zoran Radmilović Award.[6][7][8]

Šerbedžija at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.

It was probably not until his turn as the captain interrogating a woman who rescued hundreds of children from the Holocaust in Hanna's War (1988) that he was noticed in the West.[5]

In the early 1990s, during the course of the Yugoslav wars, he acted in a few films from various parts of the former Yugoslavia, including the Macedonian film Before the Rain in 1994. With the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, he and his family moved to Ljubljana, Slovenia, to avoid the war.[5] Šerbedžija then also acted in various western European films before he emigrated to the United States.

He is perhaps most often recognised by world audiences for his supporting roles in Hollywood films such as Mission: Impossible 2, Mighty Joe Young, The Saint, Eyes Wide Shut, Snatch, EuroTrip, The Quiet American, Shooter, and a cameo in Batman Begins, often varying between sinister villains or trusting friends. He was asked to reprise his cameo role in The Dark Knight, but declined. He also co-starred in Space Cowboys.

In 2001, he starred in a television production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical South Pacific as French plantation owner Emile de Becque. He also appeared in the BBC spy-thriller show Spooks for one episode as a villain. In 2005 he played Captain Blake in Rupert Wainwright's remake of The Fog, and had a supporting role in the NBC science fiction series Surface. In 2007 he played Athos Roussos in Jeremy Podeswa's feature film adaptation of Anne Michaels' novel Fugitive Pieces.

He portrayed Dmitri Gredenko on the sixth season of the hit Fox show 24.

On 26 May 2009, Šerbedžija announced that he had been cast in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 as the famous foreign wandmaker Gregorovitch, a "brief but very important" role. He began filming in November 2009. He announced his casting at a press conference for Fugitive Pieces, and he added that he knew he had the role six months before.

In 2014, Šerbedžija appeared in six episodes of Downton Abbey as Prince Kuragin, a Russian exile and long-ago lover of the Dowager Countess Violet Crawley, portrayed by Dame Maggie Smith.

Šerbedžija has won four Golden Arenas for Best Actor at the Pula Film Festival. In 1979, he won for his lead role in the Palme D'Or-nominated Rajko Grlić feature Bravo Maestro. He won his second one for 1986's Evening Bells, a film based on the 1978 novel Vrata od utrobe by Mirko Kovač.[9] Starring with Živko Anočić and Krešimir Mikić, Šerbedžija won the award for the third time for his performance in 72 Days, directed by his son, Danilo. He was awarded his fourth Golden Arena for Best Actor at the 2020 Pula Film Festival for his portrayal of Petar Hektorović in the 2019 release Fishing and Fisherman's Conversations.

Šerbedžija is also known for his poetry readings and has released four albums. On the London stage, he won critical praise for his work in Corin Redgrave's Moving Theatre Company staging of Brecht in Hollywood in 1994.[5] He recorded the award-winning ballad "Ni u tvome srcu" with Bosnian vocalist Kemal Monteno.[10] In 2017, Šerbedžija has signed the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins.[11]

Šerbedžija married Ivanka Cerovac in 1969. They have a son, film director Danilo Šerbedžija (b. 1971), and a daughter, actress Lucija (b. 1973). The couple divorced in 1987.

Šerbedžija met his second wife, Lenka Udovički, the sister of Serbian politician Kori Udovički, in Subotica in 1990 and they married in 1991.[12] With his second wife, he has three daughters: Nina, Vanja, and Mimi. The girls grew up in London during their early years, then moved to California due to their father's acting career.

Šerbedžija's parents left Vinkovci as Serb refugees for Belgrade in 1991, due to the Croatian War of Independence.[13]

In 1992, while at a club in Belgrade, an intoxicated youth swore at Šerbedžija, calling him "Serb traitor", then shot his gun in the air.[14] The youth himself was from Lika, as was Šerbedžija.[14] Šerbedžija took his wife and at the time, only daughter Nina, and left Zagreb and Belgrade, and settled in Ljubljana, Slovenia.[15][13] Šerbedžija has called himself "Yugo-nostalgic",[16] and in 2011, said that times were better in Socialist Yugoslavia than now.[14]

Šerbedžija owns property in London, Hollywood, California, Rijeka, and Zagreb. As of January 2011, he reportedly spends most of his time in Rijeka together with his wife Lenka.[13]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rade Šerbedžija.

• Rade Šerbedžija at IMDb