Mira Furlan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mira Furlan
Furlan at the Phoenix ComiCon in 2013
Born	(1955-09-07)7 September 1955 Zagreb, PR Croatia, Yugoslavia
Died	20 January 2021(2021-01-20) (aged 65) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality	Croatian
Occupation	Actress singer
Years active	1976–2020
Spouse(s)	Goran Gajić ​ (m. 1998)​
Children	1
Parent(s)	Ivan Furlan Branka Weil

Mira Furlan (born September 7, 1955 – died January 20, 2021) was a talented actress and singer from Croatia. She became famous around the world for her roles in popular TV shows. Many people know her as Delenn, the Minbari Ambassador, in the science fiction series Babylon 5 (from 1993 to 1998). She also played Danielle Rousseau in the mystery show Lost (from 2004 to 2010). Mira Furlan also starred in several award-winning movies, including When Father Was Away on Business (1985) and The Abandoned (2010).

Early Life and Education

Mira Furlan was born on September 7, 1955, in Zagreb, which was then part of Yugoslavia. She came from a family of smart people, including many university professors. Her mother, Branka Weil, had Jewish and Serb roots from Bosnia. Her father, Ivan Furlan, had both Slovene and Croat family history.

When she was a child, Mira loved American rock and roll music. As a teenager, she became very interested in acting.

Mira studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb in Zagreb. She earned a degree in theater. At the same time, she took language classes at the university. This helped her become fluent in English, German, and French.

Acting Career

Mira Furlan was a member of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. She often appeared in TV shows and movies in Yugoslavia. One of her most famous early roles was Ankica Vidmar in the film When Father Was Away on Business. This movie won a top award, the Palme d'Or, at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In the late 1980s, she performed in plays in both Zagreb and Belgrade.

In 1992, Mira moved to New York City because of difficult times in Yugoslavia. She then became a member of the famous Actors Studio. Later that year, her theater friends in the U.S. helped her get permission to work. She played the main role in Yerma with the Indiana Repertory Theatre.

She performed on stage in both New York City and Los Angeles. Mira Furlan played the important role of Minbari Ambassador Delenn for all five seasons of Babylon 5. She also appeared in some TV movies related to the show. From 2004 to 2010, she had a recurring role as Danielle Rousseau on Lost. In 2009, she was a guest star on an episode of NCIS called "South By Southwest".

In 2002, after eleven years, she went back to Croatia. She took on the main role in a play called Medea, produced by Rade Šerbedžija's Ulysses Theatre Company.

Singing and Writing

Singing

In the 1980s, Mira Furlan briefly sang for a band called Le Cinema. This band was a spin-off from the rock band Film. In 1998, she released her own music album titled Songs From Movies That Have Never Been Made.

Mira also sang in a band called The be five. They released one album in 1998, called Trying to Forget.

Writing

Mira Furlan wrote a play called Until Death Do Us Part. This play is set in Zagreb in the 1970s. She also wrote columns for a Croatian magazine called Feral Tribune. A collection of these columns was published as a book in 2010, titled Totalna rasprodaja.

Personal Life

Mira Furlan was married to director Goran Gajić. He directed her in an episode of Babylon 5 and in several plays, including Antigone.

In the 1980s, Mira was involved in the feminist movement in Yugoslavia.

During the late 1980s, Mira often traveled between Zagreb and Belgrade. She did this to act in plays in both cities, as her husband lived in Belgrade. When the Croatian War of Independence began in 1991, she faced difficulties. The Croatian National Theater fired her because she continued to act in a Belgrade theater. She also faced a public campaign against her and received threatening messages. Mira wrote a public letter sharing her sadness about how her fellow citizens and colleagues treated her. In November 1991, during the early days of the breakup of Yugoslavia, Mira and her husband moved to New York City.

Mira and Goran had one child, a son named Marko Lav, in 1998.

Illness and Death

Mira Furlan passed away at her home in Los Angeles on January 20, 2021. She was 65 years old. Her death was caused by problems from West Nile fever. After her death, the director of the Croatian National Theater, Ivica Buljan, apologized on behalf of the theater for how they treated Mira in the early 1990s. A week later, a Croatian weekly magazine called Globus also apologized for publishing articles that attacked her in 1992.

Awards and Recognition

Mira Furlan received several awards for her acting:

• 1982 Pula Film Festival Golden Arena award for Best Supporting Actress in the film Cyclops.
• 1986 Pula Film Festival Golden Arena award for Best Actress in The Beauty of Vice.
• 1990 Dubravko Dujšin Award [hr]
• 2013 Balkan New Film Festival Jury Award for Best Actress in The Abandoned.

Filmography

Movies

Television Shows

Video Games

See also

In Spanish: Mira Furlan para niños