The Most Famous

ACTORS from Croatia

This page contains a list of the greatest Croatian Actors. The pantheon dataset contains 13,578 Actors, 16 of which were born in Croatia. This makes Croatia the birth place of the 42nd most number of Actors behind Czechia, and Serbia.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Croatian Actors of all time. This list of famous Croatian Actors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Croatian Actors.

1. Laura Antonelli (1941 - 2015)

With an HPI of 67.81, Laura Antonelli is the most famous Croatian Actor. Her biography has been translated into 39 different languages on wikipedia.

Laura Antonelli (née Antonaz; 28 November 1941 – 22 June 2015) was an Italian film actress who appeared in 45 films between 1964 and 1991.

2. Rade Šerbedžija (b. 1946)

With an HPI of 63.85, Rade Šerbedžija is the 2nd most famous Croatian Actor. His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Rade Šerbedžija (Serbian Cyrillic: Раде Шербеџија, pronounced [rǎːde ʃerbědʒija]; 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 (2000), his supporting roles in such Hollywood films as The Saint (1997), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), X-Men: First Class (2011), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), and Taken 2 (2012); and for his recurring role as former Soviet Army General Dmitri Gredenko in Season 6 of TV action series 24. Šerbedžija 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). He was awarded the International Press Academy’s Mary Pickford Award, an honorary award “for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to the Entertainment Industry”, in 2019.

3. Alida Valli (1921 - 2006)

With an HPI of 63.63, Alida Valli is the 3rd most famous Croatian Actor. Her biography has been translated into 42 different languages.

Alida Maria Laura, Freiin Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg (31 May 1921 – 22 April 2006), better known by her stage name Alida Valli (or simply Valli), was an Italian actress who appeared in more than 100 films in a 70-year career, spanning from the 1930s to the early 2000s. She was one of the biggest stars of Italian film during the Fascist era, once being called "the most beautiful woman in the world" by Benito Mussolini, and was internationally successful post-World War II. According to Frédéric Mitterrand, Valli was the only actress in Europe to equal Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo. Valli worked with many significant directors both in Italy and abroad, including Alfred Hitchcock (The Paradine Case; 1947), Carol Reed (The Third Man; 1949), Luchino Visconti (Senso; 1954), Michelangelo Antonioni (Il Grido; 1957), Georges Franju (Eyes Without a Face; 1960), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Oedipus Rex; 1967), Mario Bava (Lisa and the Devil; 1972), Bernardo Bertolucci (1900, 1976; La Luna; 1979), and Dario Argento (Suspiria; 1977). Within her lifetime, Valli was invested a Knight of the Italian Republic, and received the Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion at the 1997 Venice Film Festival for her contributions to cinema.

4. Sylva Koscina (1933 - 1994)

With an HPI of 60.45, Sylva Koscina is the 4th most famous Croatian Actor. Her biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Sylva Koscina (Italian: [ˈsilva ˈkɔʃʃina]; born Silvija Košćina, Croatian: [sǐlvija kǒʃtɕina]; 22 August 1933 – 26 December 1994) was a Yugoslav-born Italian actress, maybe best remembered for her role as Iole, the bride of Hercules (Steve Reeves) in Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1960). She also played Paul Newman's romantic interest in The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968).

5. Mira Furlan (1955 - 2021)

With an HPI of 58.21, Mira Furlan is the 5th most famous Croatian Actor. Her biography has been translated into 42 different languages.

Mira Furlan (7 September 1955 – 20 January 2021) was a Croatian-American actress and singer. Internationally, she was best known for her roles as the Minbari Ambassador Delenn in the science fiction television series Babylon 5 (1993–1998), and as Danielle Rousseau in Lost (2004–2010), and also appeared in multiple award-winning films such as When Father Was Away on Business (1985) and The Abandoned (2010).

6. Zlatko Burić (b. 1953)

With an HPI of 52.41, Zlatko Burić is the 6th most famous Croatian Actor. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Zlatko Burić (born 13 May 1953) is a Danish-Croatian actor. He is best known for his performances in the Pusher film trilogy (1996–2005) and the films 2012 (2009) and Triangle of Sadness (2022). For the latter, he won a European Film Award and a Guldbagge Award.

7. María Baxa (1946 - 2019)

With an HPI of 51.81, María Baxa is the 7th most famous Croatian Actor. Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

María Baxa (born Marija Baksa, Serbian Cyrillic: Марија Бакса; 15 April 1946 – 14 November 2019) was an Italian-Serbian film actress, mainly active in Italian cinema. Born in Osijek, Baxa made her film debut in Branko Čelović's Bokseri idu u raj, then moved to Italy where she became a popular starlet in Italian genre cinema, especially in commedia sexy all'italiana (sex comedies). In the late 1980s, Baxa left showbusiness to be an architect.

8. Goran Višnjić (b. 1972)

With an HPI of 50.76, Goran Višnjić is the 8th most famous Croatian Actor. His biography has been translated into 54 different languages.

Goran Višnjić (Croatian: [ɡǒran ʋîʃɲitɕ] VISH-nyich; born 9 September 1972) is a Croatian-American actor who has appeared in American and British films and television productions. He is best known for his roles as Dr. Luka Kovač in ER and Garcia Flynn in Timeless, both NBC television series. For ER, he and the cast were nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He is the son-in-law of Croatian film director and former head of Croatian Radiotelevision (1991–95), Antun Vrdoljak.

9. Slavko Štimac (b. 1960)

With an HPI of 50.11, Slavko Štimac is the 9th most famous Croatian Actor. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Slavko Štimac (born 15 October 1960) is a Serbian actor. Born in a village near Perušić in Croatia, he later graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. Štimac made his screen debut in the 1972 children's film Vuk samotnjak, recruited at the age of ten years old after the wife of director Obrad Gluščević visited his school. What followed was a career during which Štimac appeared in many popular and important 1970s and 1980s Yugoslav films where he played child and adolescent characters (including the role of young Russian soldier in Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron). His youthful looks later plagued his career, typecasting him into adolescent roles well into his 30s. However, in 2004 he had the leading role in Emir Kusturica's Life Is a Miracle, some years after playing the role of a stutterer in the internationally acclaimed film Underground of same director Kusturica.

10. Luka Peroš (b. 1976)

With an HPI of 45.35, Luka Peroš is the 10th most famous Croatian Actor. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Luka Peroš (born 28 October 1976) is a Croatian actor best known for the role of Marseille in Money Heist. Peroš is a polyglot and multilingual, being able to speak eight different languages. He speaks fluent English.

People

Pantheon has 18 people classified as Croatian actors born between 1921 and 1981. Of these 18, 12 (66.67%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Croatian actors include Rade Šerbedžija, Zlatko Burić, and Goran Višnjić. The most famous deceased Croatian actors include Laura Antonelli, Alida Valli, and Sylva Koscina. As of April 2024, 2 new Croatian actors have been added to Pantheon including Zlatko Burić, and Luka Peroš.