Vlastimir “Vlasta” Velisavljević, a Yugoslav theater, film and television actor, was born on July 28, 1926, in Belgrade. He spent more than 70 years on stage, during which time he played more than 350 roles, which is why many consider him a legendary actor. He received numerous awards for his work, with the last one, and the one dearest to him, being his appointment as a lifelong honorary member of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre (JDP). He was a member of the first generation of acting students in Belgrade. He worked with numerous theater, television and film directors, and his memorable lines are still quoted by generations of viewers.
He began acting at the age of 12 at the “Roda” theater, an auxiliary stage of the “Manjež” theater. Its entire repertoire was created by Margita “Gita” Predić, the daughter of Serbian playwright Branislav Nušić. The theater continued to operate until the German occupation of Belgrade.
He spent the beginning of World War II with his family in Belgrade. During a period of severe hunger, he and his friends stole apples from railway cars that the Germans were sending to their soldiers on the Eastern Front—until they were caught by the Germans. His friends managed to escape, but at the beginning of 1943, Vlasta, only 17 years old, was interned in the Dortmund-Hörde concentration camp in Germany.
Because he was young and healthy, he was not sent to a gas chamber but was forced to work every day in the labor camp. There he met a craftsman named Bergmann, whose son had been killed at the front. The two quickly became friends. Bergmann brought him food, which Vlasta shared with the other prisoners, invited him to his home, and eventually helped him escape from the camp in 1944. He gave him a German pass that allowed him to return to Belgrade through the Independent State of Croatia (NDH).
After the war, Vlasta and his friends attempted to escape to America, but he failed to get away. Instead, he was arrested and taken to a prison that was then located on Ada in Belgrade.
His father pleaded with the authorities to release him, which eventually happened. In 1948, he enrolled without difficulty at the Academy of Theatrical Arts in Belgrade, studying in the class of Professor Mata Milošević. The first class of the newly established Academy also included Olivera Marković, Vlastimir “Đuza” Stojiljković, Olgica Stanisavljević, Maja Belović, Predrag “Pepi” Laković, Bosiljka “Boci” and Danica Aćimac, among others.
His father was not initially happy when Vlasta told him he wanted to become an actor, but he changed his mind after seeing him perform on stage.
At the time, Vlasta was friends with Dušan Majcen, a Slovenian and colonel in the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), who was also head of a department at the Higher Military Academy. Majcen was a Stalinist, and since Stalinists were being persecuted at the time, Vlasta, unwilling to betray his friend, once again ended up in prison.
In 1950, he was arrested and taken to Banjica Prison, from where he was transferred to Goli Otok, a notorious political prison camp. He spent three years there. In 1953, he was rehabilitated and returned to Belgrade. Nevertheless, because of his past, the doors of theaters remained closed to him. He was not even allowed to attend performances for which he already had tickets.
For the next several years, he worked at the theater in Mostar before moving to Tuzla, where the local theater was looking for new actors. He worked with director Dejan Mijač and other renowned actors. After several years, he applied to join the Belgrade Drama Theatre (BDP) and was accepted.
However, his restless spirit took him to Russia. After returning to Belgrade, director Bojan Stupica invited him to perform at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre. Vlasta then joined the group known as “Bojan’s Babies,” a generation of young actors whom Stupica brought to JDP during the 1968/1969 season. The group included Milan Gutović, Gojko Šantić, Branko Cvejić, Mirjana Vukojčić, Svetlana Bojković, Ivan Bekjarev, Tanasije Uzunović, Josip Tatić, Dušan Đurić, Đurđija Cvetić and others.
From then on, he performed hundreds of roles at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre as well as in other Belgrade theaters. One of his longest-running performances was Georges Feydeau’s “A Flea in Her Ear,” in which he appeared alongside Nikola Simić, Rada Đuričin and Branka Petrić.
Throughout his career, Vlasta appeared in 45 feature films, 61 television films and 56 television series. He often said that he would continue acting for as long as he was able to, because he could not imagine living any other way. He believed that “the moment the theater no longer needs me, I will no longer live,” adding that life without theater was not life for him.
He was married three times. With his first wife, Božana, he had a daughter, Dubravka, who lives in the United States.
Vlastimir “Vlasta” Velisavljević died on March 24, 2021, at the age of 94, from complications related to COVID-19.
