Rade Šerbedžija

Rade Šerbedžija ( sr-Cyrl, Раде Шербеџија, ; born 27 July 1946) is a Croatian actor, director and musician. He is known for his portrayals of imposing figures on both sides of the law. He was one of the best known Yugoslav actors in the 1970s and 1980s. He is internationally known mainly for his role as Boris the Blade in '' Snatch'', his supporting roles in such Hollywood films as ''The Saint'', '' Mission: Impossible 2'', '' X-Men: First Class'', '' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1'', and ''Taken 2''; and for his recurring role as former Soviet Army General Dmitri Gredenko in Season 6 of TV action series '' 24''.

Šerbedžija’s work has earned widespread acclaim and accolades. He is a four-time recipient of the Golden Arena for Best Actor, Croatia’s highest filmmaking honors. He won the Critics Award for Best Actor at the 51st Venice International Film Festival for his performance in ''Before the Rain'' (1994). His performance in the Canadian film ''Fugitive Pieces'' (2007) was nominated for a Genie Award and Satellite Award. He was awarded the International Press Academy’s Mary Pickford Award, an honorary award “for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to the Entertainment Industry”, in 2019. The same year, he won his second Vladimir Nazor Award for “Lifetime Achievement - Film Art”.

Early life

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

Career in Yugoslavia

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. His stage roles included Oedipus and Richard III. His performance as Hamlet in 1974 in Dubrovnik catapulted him into stardom.

Šerbedžija landed his first major film role in 1968 in the Branko Ivanda-directed ''Gravitation''. He had various notable roles in Yugoslav films, among others in ''Bravo maestro'' (1978), ''Journalist'' (1979), '' Banović Strahinja'' (1981), '' Kiklop'' (1982) and '' San o ruži'' (1986). He was also among the leading actors in several TV series, such as in ''Prosjaci i sinovi'' (1971), ''U registraturi'' (1976), and ''Putovanje u Vučjak'' (1986).

Šerbedžija taught as a professor at the University of Zagreb from 1979 to 1981 and at the University of Novi Sad from 1987 to 1991.

Šerbedžija was one of the most well-known actors in Yugoslavia, in addition to being one of the most beloved. Prior to leaving his home country, Šerbedžija had starred in over 40 films. He was also one of the main supporters of the KGPT Yugoslav theater, a project initiated to unite the different Yugoslav state theaters into a single troupe.

Šerbedžija is a four-time recipient of the Golden Arena for Best Actor at the Pula Film Festival; in 1978 for ''Bravo maestro'', in 1986 for '' Evening Bells'' (''Večernja zvona''), in 2010 for ''72 Days'' (''Sedamdeset i dva dana''), and ''Fishing and Fishermen's Conversations'' (2020).

In 2000, Šerbedžija founded the Ulysses Theater with Borislav Vujčić on the Brijuni islands. In a co-production between the Ulysses Theatre and the National Theatre in Belgrade, for his role in the 2019 adaptation of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'', Šerbedžija received the Zoran Radmilović Award, the Croatian Theatre Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the Orlando Award.

International career

As war broke out in Yugoslavia, Šerbedžija initially moved to Serbia in 1992, then Slovenia before eventually spending some time London, England at the invitation of actor and friend Anthony Andrews. While in London, Šerbedžija met with Macedonian-American director Milcho Manchevski who cast him in his 1994 film '' Before the Rain''. The performance earned him a Critics Award for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.

Prior to leaving Yugoslavia, Šerbedžija appeared in two films that were released in the West; ''Hanna's War'' (1988) and ''Manifesto'' (1989).

Šerbedžija has had supporting roles in Hollywood films such as '' Mission: Impossible 2'', '' Mighty Joe Young'', ''The Saint'', ''Eyes Wide Shut'', '' Snatch'', and ''Space Cowboys'' among others. He is usually known for playing villains.

He had a cameo in ''Batman Begins''; he was asked to reprise his cameo role in ''The Dark Knight'', but declined.

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
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