Zvonimir Rogoz

Zvonimir Rogoz (10 October 1887 – 6 February 1988) was a Croatian actor who played in German, Croatian, Slovenian, Czech and Slovakian, on stage and in cinema, during a career long 81 years.

A native of Zagreb, Rogoz started his actor's career in Vienna in Wiener Theater. From 1919 to 1929 he was actor and director in Ljubljana. Rogoz became famous in Czechoslovakia as a guest in title roles when Ljubljana theater in 1927 played in Prague Shakespeare's Hamlet and Dostoevsky's Idiot. Rogoz remained in engagement in National Theatre in Prague from 1929 till 1949. In the prewar period he appeared in many Czechoslovak films of the 1930s, including the 1933 erotic drama Ecstasy, featuring young Hedy Lamarr. He then returned to Zagreb, playing in theater, cinema and television till his death. Younger generations of Croatia remember him even more for his private life: he fathered a child at the age of 92. This and other events became the subject of his autobiographical book Mojih prvih 100 godina (My First 100 Years). He died in Zagreb a few months after his 100th birthday.