From football to acting
About an unsuspecting football player and a talented actor.
Zvonimir Torjanac, one of the best television actors, known for his roles as the hunter Pištar in Gruntovčani, Kamil Lisco in Kuda idu svijni svijni and Joe the American in Beggars and Sons, is remembered for successfully breaking the stage fright of his younger colleagues. Older colleagues loved him for his sense of humor.
He began his education modestly, attending the Construction and Technical School in Donji Miholjec. He was not particularly interested in acting, his first love was football. But his father, due to a bad experience with his brother who dropped out of school because of football, forced Zvonimir to join the KUD "Matije Gupca". There, Zvonimir acted in various amateur plays. And he was excellent.
Despite his father's desire to become a farmer, the theater workers of his hometown saw his acting potential and encouraged him to enroll in the Zagreb "Study for Acting and Directing".
He started his career on the "boards that mean life" in Varaždin, and continued it in the Zagreb Pioneer Theater (modern ZKM) where he stayed for twenty years. During the Homeland War, he was successfully at the head of the Croatian Society of Dramatic Artists. It was then that he founded the Actors' Festival in Vinkovci, and chaired the Croatian Art Forces.
He continued his unsuspecting career as a farmer in his older days when he lovingly landscaped his garden and liked to watch a match.
