Goran Višnjić Biography

Fast Facts

• In 2003, he served as a spokesperson for the animal rights organization PETA
• In 2004, he won the Pula Film Festival award for Best Actor
• Received the 2004 Paris Film Festival award for Best Actor for his work on "Doctor Sleep․"
• Won the 2005 Vladimir Nazor Prize, Croatia's highest creative award, and donated the money that accompanied the award to a Croatian center providing special services to adults with mental disabilities
• Trained in acting at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, Croatia
• Got his big break when he was cast in the title role of the Dubrovnik Summer Theatre Festival production of "Hamlet․"
• Quote: "(On why he extended his military service) "When somebody is attacking your hometown and you're just sitting in the basement, you feel really useless․ I felt I had to do it to defend my country․""
• Quote: "Lots of people want to be movie stars․ But they don't realize that to be a celebrity is not that beautiful if you can't go to the store to buy toothpaste․"
• The youngest actor to be chosen for the title role in Shakespeare's "Hamlet," played the role from 1993 to 2000 at the internationally acclaimed Dubrovnik Summer Theatre Festival in Croatia
• Active member in the American and European animal rights movements and appeared in photographs in PETA's first Eastern European anti-fur campaign
• At the age of 18, he joined the Croatian Army, where he served as a paratrooper
• A science fiction fan, his favorite sci-fi TV show is "Stargate SG-1․"
• Brother volunteered to replace him in the Croatian army after he was accepted to the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, Croatia
• Trained as a paratrooper in the Croatian army as a teenager and volunteered to stay on for an additional three months during the war with Serbia
• Was featured in the music video to Madonna's song "The Power of Goodbye․"