Apparently Bekim Fehmiu has died… according to news alerts:
Belgrade – Well-known Yugoslav actor of Albanian descent Bekim Fehmiu was found dead on Tuesday in his apartment in Belgrade, Serbian state television RTS reported. He was 74.
Fehmiu is best known for his role in a 1967 movie Skupljaci perja (I Even Met Happy Gypsies) which won the Grand Prize of the Jury and FIPRESCI prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Fehmiu was a major star of Yugoslav films in the 1960s and 1970s. He appeared in many European productions, mostly Italian, and partnered with stars such as Ava Gardner, Charles Aznavour and Olivia de Havilland. He retired from the public life in the 1980s.
For the Wild Eye, Fehmiu was familiar primarily as a star of Italian and European films. In 1968 he starred in the TV series L’odissea, directed by Franco Rossi, Piero Schivazappa and Mario Bava, and from there went on to appear as a supporting player in Lewis Gilbert’s The Adventurers (69) and then star in the semi-spaghetti western The Deserter (71). Other films included Daniele Pettinari’s Cagliostro (74), Giuseppe Rosati’s Il testimone deve tacere (74) and, briefly, Salon Kitty (76). He could have been a big star but his choices were often a little leftfield and he was never really able to capitalise on the buzz that surrounded him during the early 70s.