RIP Demeter Bitenc

Demeter Bitenc, one of the best known Slovenian film actors, has died aged 95. His first film was the first Slovenian feature film “Na svoji zemlji” (On Our Own Land). He appeared in more than 230 theatre and film roles in his seventy-year career, web portal RTV Slovenija reported. Born on July 21, 1922 in Ljubljana, he spent his childhood and youth in Gorenjska. He graduated from the Trade Academy in Ljubljana, but already during his studies he was impressed by theater, film and acting. During the war, he attended private lessons with the theater actor and director Slavko Jan, and in 1943 he made an audition for admission to the ensemble of the Ljubljana. He first received a short film experience in his first feature film by France Stiglitz. “On His Land” in 1948, he made his first real film debut in 1959 with a role of a German officer in the film “Good Old Piano”. In the next decade, he recorded nearly 40 co-production films shot by foreign producers in the then Yugoslavia. He often appeared in the uniforms of German soldiers. Bitenc appeared in six Euro-westerns: Apache Gold (1963) as Dick Stone), “Legend of a Gunfighter” (1964), “Bandits of the Rio Grande” (1965) as Elgaut), “Duel at Sundown” (1965) as Mack), “Starblack” (1966) as Burt and “Ballad of a Gunman” (1967) as Bradley.