Fabijan Šovagović

Fabijan Šovagović (4 January 1932 – 1 January 2001) was a Croatian film, television and theatre actor, and writer. Šovagović was born in the village of Ladimirevci, in the Slavonia region of Croatia, then Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He began acting in his youth and from the late 1950s he appeared in many films, becoming one of the most recognisable faces of Croatian and former Yugoslav cinema. He never became a star, but he built a reputation as one of the greatest character actors with memorable roles in many classic films and popular television series. Matija Gubec, whom he played in 1975 film Seljačka buna, is one of his rare starring roles.

In 1979 he played the role of a Dervish in Meetings with Remarkable Men, directed by Peter Brook.

Šovagović was also active in theatre and those experiences led him to begin writing plays of his own. The best known of them all is Sokol ga nije volio ("Sokol Did Not Love Him"), later adapted in 1988 film. It was his movie about his birthplace, Ladimirevci.

His most unforgettable last role was of a Slavonian refugee man in the 1994 movie Vukovar se vraća kući ("Vukovar: The Way Home"). A man lost everything in war except his loving companion dog, and shares destiny of many of his fellow citizens who are exiled from the Slavonian town of Vukovar.

Many believe his brilliant reflection of this tragic Slavonian character was due to a fact that Šovagović being a native Slavonian Croat, have known this feeling firsthand himself.

Šovagović played brilliant role of policeman (Žandar) in television series "Kuda idu divlje svinje?" (Where Do Wild Boars Go?).

Through the last years of his life, Šovagović struggled with the consequences of heart strokes. He died in Zagreb, on 1 January 2001, aged 68.