1. Bekim Fehmiu was the first Eastern European actor to star in Hollywood during the Cold War, and one of the internationally best-known ethnic Albanian actors.
17 Facts About Bekim Fehmiu
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The family moved to Shkoder, Albania, where they spent three years, and in 1941 returned to Prizren where Bekim Fehmiu spent his childhood.
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Bekim Fehmiu was part of the acting club at his high school in Prizren, and after graduation he became a member of County Popular Theatre in Pristina, the only professional Albanian language theatre in Yugoslavia.
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Bekim Fehmiu graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade in 1960.
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In 1960, Bekim Fehmiu became a member of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade, which he left in 1967, citing bad treatment, to become a free artist.
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Bekim 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 Bekim Fehmiu to achieve similar stardom in Hollywood".
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In 1971, Bekim Fehmiu starred in the western action drama The Deserter, directed by Burt Kennedy.
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In 1976, Bekim 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.
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Bekim Fehmiu portrayed a Palestinian terrorist in John Frankenheimer's 1977 political thriller, Black Sunday.
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Bekim Fehmiu portrayed the father of Mother Teresa, Nikola Boyaxhiu, in the 1982 film La Voce.
11.
Bekim Fehmiu acted as Joseph in the Italian production A Child Called Jesus.
12.
Bekim Fehmiu was to have acted in the movie Genghis Khan, but it was ultimately never made.
13.
Bekim Fehmiu was found dead on 15 June 2010 in his apartment in Belgrade.
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Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said Bekim Fehmiu was found shot in his apartment and the gun was registered in Bekim Fehmiu's name.
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Bekim Fehmiu's body was cremated and the ashes were scattered in Prizren Bistrica in Prizren, his childhood home.
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Bekim Fehmiu was one of the first Albanian theater and film actors to act in theaters and movies all over Yugoslavia, with Abdurrahman Shala, Faruk Begolli and Enver Petrovci, appearing in a series of roles that changed the history of the Cinema of Yugoslavia and left a mark in the artistic developments elsewhere.
17.
In 2001, Samizdat B92 published a book of Bekim Fehmiu's memoirs, entitled Blistavo i strasno, which describes his life until 1955, the year he became an actor.