
Bekim Fehmiu
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1936-06-02
Day of Death
2010-06-15 (74 years old)
Place of Birth
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bekim Fehmiu
Biography
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.
Acting
(2023)
Bekim Fehmiu
as Himself (archive footage)
(1998)
Heart and Sword
as Gormond
(1987)
A Child Called Jesus
as Joseph
(1987)
(1985)
The Red and the Black
as Ivan Pipan
(1983)
Pavilón šeliem
as Kálmán Furtek
(1982)
The Balad of Mamelouk
as Ruler
(1982)
The Voice
as Nicolay
(1981)
Broad Are the Leaves
as Baja
(1979)
The Battle of the Eagles
as Major Dragan
(1978)
Arrive Before Daybreak
as Esad Ljumi
(1977)
Black Sunday
as Fasil
(1977)
Special Education
as Žarko Munižaba
(1977)
Ready for Anything
as Marco
(1976)
Salon Kitty
as Hans Reiter
(1975)
Libera, My Love
as Sandro Poggi
(1975)
Cagliostro
as Count Alexander Cagliostro / Giuseppe Balsamo
(1975)
Permission to Kill
as Alexander Diakim
(1975)
Pavle Pavlovic
as Pavle Pavlović
(1974)
Deps
as Deps
(1974)
Silence the Witness
as Il dottor Giorgio Sironi
(1974)
The Wind
as Adam Milovanović
(1974)
Il gioco della verità
as Alberto Santoro
(1973)
The Last Snows of Spring
as Roberto
(1972)
Bekim Fehmiu Visits Albania
as Himself
(1972)
The Reichstag Fire
as Georgi Dimitrov
(1971)
A Trap for the General
as Doktor, obaveštajac OZNE
(1970)
The Adventurers
as Dax Xenos
(1970)
The Deserter
as Captain Victor Kaleb
(1968)
Odissea
as Ulisse
(1968)
Do Not Mention the Cause of Death
as Mihajlo
(1967)
I Even Met Happy Gypsies
as Bora
(1967)
Protest
as Ivo Bajšić
(1966)
The Feverish Years
as Mirko
(1966)
The Swarm
as Halil Beg
(1966)
The Time of Love
as Milija, trubač (segment "Put")
(1965)
(1965)
(1965)
(1965)
Klaxon
as Marko
(1964)
Under the Same Sky
as Kerim
(1962)
Sasha
as Marić, poručnik Kraljevske vojske