Rade Šerbedžija (born 27 July 1946), occasionally credited as Rade Sherbedgia in some English-language productions, is a Croatian actor, director and musician of Serb ethnicity.
He is known for his portrayals of imposing figures on both sides of the law. He was one of the most popular Yugoslav actors in the 1970s and 1980s. He is internationally known mainly for his supporting roles in Hollywood films such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, X-Men: First Class and Mission: Impossible II, and for his recurring role as former Soviet Army General Dmitri Gredenko in the sixth season of TV action series 24. He also is famous for his poetry readings.
He played Murad Hoxha in Taken 2.
Life and Career[]
It was probably not until his turn as the captain interrogating a woman who rescued hundreds of children from the Holocaust in Hanna's War (1988) that he was noticed in the West.
In the early 1990s, during the course of the Yugoslav wars, he acted in a few films from various parts of the former Yugoslavia, including the Macedonian film Before the Rain in 1994. With the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, he and his family moved to Belgrade, Serbia to avoid the war. Šerbedžija then also acted in various western European films before he emigrated to the United States.
He is perhaps most often recognized by world audiences for his supporting roles in Hollywood films such as Mission: Impossible II, Mighty Joe Young, The Saint, Eyes Wide Shut, Snatch, EuroTrip, The Quiet American (2002), Shooter and a cameo in Batman Begins, often varying between sinister villains or trusting friends. He was offered to reprise his cameo role in The Dark Knight but opted not to.
In 2001, he starred in a television production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musical South Pacific in the role of the French plantation owner, Emile de Becque. He was also involved in the BBC Television production of the spy-thriller show Spooks for one episode as a villain. In autumn of 2005, Šerbedžija had a supporting role in the NBC science fiction series Surface. His most recent role is in Jeremy Podeswa's feature film adaptation of Anne Michaels' novel Fugitive Pieces, where he plays the character Athos Roussos. His most recent successful role is that of Captain Blake in Rupert Wainwright's remake of The Fog.
He portrayed the part of Dmitri Gredenko on the sixth season of the hit Fox show 24.
On May 26, 2009, Šerbedžija announced that he had been cast in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 as the famous foreign wandmaker Gregorovitch, a 'brief but very important' role. He began filming in November 2009. He announced his casting at a press conference for Fugitive Pieces, and he added that he knew he had the role six months before.
Šerbedžija was married to Ivanka Cerovac, but they divorced in 1987. They have a son, film director Danilo Šerbedžija (b. 1971) and a daughter, actress Lucija (b. 1973). Šerbedžija met his second wife, Lenka Udovički, the sister of Serbian politician Kori Udovički, in Subotica in 1990 and they married in 1991.
Together with his current wife, Lenka Šerbedžija, he has three daughters: Nina the oldest, Vanja, the middle child, and Mimi the youngest. Nina is now attending college and the younger two are in high school. The children grew up in London for their early lives, then moved to California because of Rade's acting career.
His parents left Vinkovci for Belgrade in 1991. His mother died in 1997, while his father still lives in Belgrade.
In 1992, while at a club in Belgrade, an intoxicated youth swore at him, calling him "Serb traitor", then shot his gun in the air. The youth himself was from Lika, as was Šerbedžija. He then took his wife and at the time, only daughter Nina, and left Zagreb and Belgrade, and settled in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Šerbedžija has called himself "Yugo-nostalgic", and in 2011, he said that times were better in Socialist Yugoslavia than now. Rade has displayed his national/ethnic neutrality by publicly showing support for Croatian athletes.
Among his family's addresses are: London, England; Hollywood, California; Zagerb, Croatia; Belgrade, Serbia; while he currently lives in Rijeka, Croatia (as of January 2011).