Goran Višnjić

Goran Višnjić (/ˈvɪʃnjɪtʃ/ VISH-nyich; Croatian: [ˈʋiʃɲitɕ]; born September 9, 1972) is a Croatian American actor who has appeared in American and British films and television productions. He is best known in the United States for his role as Dr. Luka Kovač on the NBC television series ER. He is the son-in-law of Croatian film director and former head of Croatian Radiotelevision (1991–95), Antun Vrdoljak.

Credited as Goran Visnjic in his English-language work, he adopted the simplified spelling of his name when he came to the United States in the late 1990s.

Early life

Goran Višnjić was born in Šibenik. He has one sibling, an elder brother, Joško. His father, Željko, was a bus driver, and his mother, Milka, worked in a market. He appeared in plays throughout his childhood and made his screen debut at age 16 in the controversial Yugoslav film, Braća po materi (1988), playing a young Ustaša.

In 1990, at the age of 18, Višnjić was drafted to serve his one-year military obligation in the Yugoslavian army, and volunteered as a paratrooper. Only weeks after his military discharge in 1991, as Yugoslavia began to dissolve, he joined the nascent Croatian Ground Army. After leaving the army, he moved to Zagreb to study at the Academy of Dramatic Art.