Bata Živojinović

Bata Živojinović (born Velimir Pavel Živojinović) is a Serbian actor and former politician. He was born in the modern day Belgrade suburb of Mladenovac in 1933. He started his film career in 1955 after a short theater career and has changed rolls between heroes and villains and lead to supporting rolls. The height of his career was in the 1970's when he starred in many Second World War films. His best known film is Walter Defends Sarajevo which he played the lead roll, the film also gained mass popularity in China and has become the most watched film in history. Živojinović is fluent in Serbian, German, English, Greek and Romanian and has also starred in a few films from countries that speak these languages. He was also close friends with Croatian actor Boris Dvornik. In 1991 the two renounced each other in a series of open letters. 16 years later Živojinović and Dvornik would reconcile via a video up link between both Split and Belgrade. The event was publicly presented on news channels throughout former Yugoslavia. Živojinović also ran for president of Serbia in 2002 for the Serbian Socialist Party against the pro-Milošević Radical Party. Živojinović is seen as an icon of the Titoist era as well as Balkan cinema.