(Split, Croatia, April 16, 1939 - Split, March 24, 2008)


Boris Dvornik, Croatian theatre, film and TV actor, was one of the biggest stars of Yugoslav cinema. Even in childhood he was quite interested in acting and appeared in plays for children. Even though he studied to be an electrician, he started to act more and graduated from the Secondary Acting School in Novi Sad. Afterwards he enrolled in the Theatre academy in Zagreb and made his film debut in 1960 in France Štiglic’s Deveti krug. He became popular immediately after his first role and secured his status in films such as Martin u oblacima (1961) and Prekobrojna (1962) by Branko Bauer. In the late 1960s he started a series of successful roles in war dramas such as Antun Vrdoljak’s Kad čujes zvona (1969) and Hajrudin Krvavac’s Most (1969) for which he won Golden arenas in Pula, and Veljko Bulajić’s Bitka na Neretvi (1969). For his roles in films Opklada (1971) by Zdravko Randić and U gori raste zelen bor (1971) by Antun Vrdoljak, he won Silver Arenas in Pula. The peak of his career was the role of Roko Prč in the TV series Naše malo misto (1970), after which he played the barber in Velo misto (1981). During 1970s he acted in films such as Lov na jelene (1972) by Fadil Hadžić, Sutjeska (1973) by Stipe Delić, Hitler iz našeg sokaka (1975) and Hajdučka vremena (1977) by Vladimir Tadej and Letači velikog neba (1977) by Marijan Arhanić. Very well-received were his TV roles from the same period in Kapelski kresovi (1974), Čovik i po (1974) and Roko i Cicibela (1978). Besides many of his great TV and film roles, Dvornik was a successful and esteemed theatre actor and a longtime member of the Croatian National Theatre in Split. He had many great roles in theater in plays such as Goldoni’s Fishermen's Quarrels, Brešan’s Hamlet u selu Mrduša Donja, Pirandello’s Man, Beast and Virtue, as well as operettas such as Strauss’ The Bat and Tijardović’s Splitski akvarel and Mala Floramy in which he starred more than 300 times. He also tried politics and was one of the representatives of HDZ in the parliament. He quickly realized that politics was not his cup of tea and remained faithful to his acting career.