Ljubinka Bobić

Ljubinka Bobic
Ljubinka Bobic
	Ljubinka Bobić on a stamp
Born	21 January 1897; Kruševac, Serbia
Died	3 December 1978 (aged 81); Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1951-1975

Ljubinka Bobic (2 January 1897 – 3 December 1978) was a Serbian actress. She appeared in more than fifteen films from 1951 to 1975.

Biography

She was born in Kruševac in a poor family with five children. Her brother Miroljub Bobić, a teacher, is one of 1300 Corporals and a holder of Alban memorial. Her father, Vladislav, a cobbler, was from Srem (Sremski Golubinci), and her mother Jelisaveta was from Macedonia (Struga). They moved to Topčider hill where Ljubinka grew up. Theatre attracted her and with her persistence she becomes a member of National theatre and dedicates her life to acting.. "…she didn’t acknowledge old age, so she often lied about her actual age. She didn’t care about being acknowledged, not even for big ones she received. She captivated everyone with her charisma, pleasant figure and, if needed, pleasant diction, and she scared everyone with her sharp tongue and the fact she could bring someone down to earth without any qualms. She often swore, and while this was true, her friends often admitted that swear words uttered by her sound charming. Like a true boem, she was a drinker and a smoker. She refused to allow her life be made into a book, because she claimed it would be "a biography to laugh and cry at, so it would appear more as an anti-biography". She never got married. She had affairs with the director of "Politika" newspaper Vlada Ribnikar, writer Miloš Crnjanski and Rade Drainac. She was buried in the Alley of deserving citizens on the New Graveyard in Belgrade. ^[1] A stamp with her silhouette was published in 2003. "Ljubinka Bobić" award was established in 2006.

Theatrical career

Her talent was discovered by Branislav Nušić while she was casting wistful looks in the direction of the theatre during the Big war in 1915 in Skoplje where she was sent by her family to live with her relatives. Thanks to him, she started out as an intern in National theatre of Skoplje. When her relatives informed her parents of this, her parents returned her to Belgrade where she continues the attendance of Women’s worker school. Fate made her cross paths with Nušić again, from whom she asks a recommendation for Zagreb theatre. Still, she chooses the National threatre in Belgrade, a member of which she becomes in 1920 and remains a member until she retires. She didn’t act only during Second world war because she refused to make the audience laugh while her country was occupied. In the beginning, she acted as sentimental girls and mischievous boys. Her first big achievement was the role of Puck in "Midsummer Night’s Dream", followed by role of Fema in "Pokondirena tikva", Mrs. Mica in "Authority", Marica in "Suspicious person", son Raka of lady Minister, who was interpreted by Žanka Stokić. Except in comedies, she interpreted the characters of Kata in "Koštana", Hedviga in Ibsen’s "Wild duck", Madlen Petrovna in Krleža’s drama "In agony" and others. Along with Žanka Stokić, she made a phenomenal interpretation of Živka in "Minister lady" written by Branislav Nušić, which she acted out 265 times during her career – first time in 1964 when she was 67 and was retired, and last time when she was 81 on 8 November in 1978, less than a month before her death.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role
1975	Devil’s ladder, TV show (Vladan Slijepčević)	old woman
1975	Pavle Pavlović, drama (Mladomir “Puriša” Đorđević)	disco house director
1973	Accident, TV movie (Vladan Slijepčević)
1972	Laughter from scene: National theatre, documentary	Živka Popović
1971	My all, mini TV show (producer – Sava Mrmak, script – Novak Novak)
1969	Cross Country (Mladomir “Puriša” Đorđević)	grandmother
1966	The Climber	owner
1964	National representative, movie (Stole Janković)	Spirinica
1962	Koštana
1962	Dr. (Soja Jovanović)	Mrs. Draga
1961	First citizen of little city, drama (Mladomir “Puriša” Đorđević)	a magician
1960	Zeppelin of dreams (Soja Jovanović)	Sara Padavicki
1957	Priests Ćira and Spira (Soja Jovanović)	Sida
1954	Legends of Anika (Vladimir Pogačić)	Jelenka
1951	Major Boggart (Nikola Popović)	grandmother

Literary work

When she got bored of charchter acting of "classy" fashionable ladies, she wrote a few popular humoristic satirical pieces:

Our manners: comedy in three acts, 1935.
Classy society, innocuous comedy in three acts, 1936.
Blo family, comedy in three acts, 1940.

All of them appeared on the scene and had a big success. She also wrote two pieces for children "Rista Robinson" and "Rista the sportsman", which premiered in children’s theatre "Roda". It consisted of five images with ballet and singing. Adaptation of this play was the comic book of the same name, for which Ljubinka together with Mića Dimitrijević wrote the text and Momčilo Moma Marković made the illustrations. The first continuation of this comic was published on 28 February 1939 in the first number of "Politikin zabavnik" and the last in the 17th number on 25 April 1939.

Awards

Golden arena in 1957. for the best female role in the movie "Priest Ćira and priest Spira"
7th July award of SR Serbia
Golden turkey
Award for life’s work in 1961.

Legacy

A street is named after her in New Belgrade, Bežanija, as well in Jakovo and Lazarice near Kruševac.

Literature

Stojković S.B. (1983). Great people in Serbian theatre. Belgrade: Serbian literary cooperatives – Valjevo: Milić Rakić
Dimitrijević К. (2011). Three of the greatest Serbian actors behind the scene: Milivoje Živanović, Raša Plaović, Ljubinka Bobić. Belgrade: Prosveta.
Dimitrijević К. (1994). Anti-biography Ljubinka Bobić. Theatron, 18, 85-107.