Ena Begović


Jelena "Ena" Begović was a prominent Croatian film actress. She is regarded as one of the best and most beautiful actresses in former Yugoslavia.

Early life and career

Begović was born in Split, at the time FPR Yugoslavia, to a father, Nikola, and a mother, Terezija Begović. Three years after her, in January 1963, her sister Mia, who is also an actress, was born. His father was originally from the municipality of Trpanj, based on the Pelješac peninsula.
Begović began acting early, making her first screen appearance at the age of 18 through a small part in Occupation in 26 Pictures, a 1978 film directed by Lordan Zafranović. She made her breakthrough role in Zafranović's next film, The Fall of Italy, where she played Veronika, the daughter of a wealthy local from the Dalmatian coast who sided with occupying Italian Fascists. This debut established Begović as one of the sex symbols of 1980s Yugoslav cinema, a status that she later successfully maintained despite appearing in relatively few films as her acting career shifted towards theater.
In the 1990s she was kept in the public eye more due to her personal life than her acting. In 1996, while driving her car in Zagreb, she was involved in a traffic accident resulting in the death of a motorcyclist.

Death

On 15 August 2000, on the island of Brač, a few months after marrying the Croatian businessman, Josip Radeljak, and a month and a half after giving birth to their daughter, Lana, she was involved in a traffic accident, a rollover, which claimed her life.
She was buried at Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb, right next to the grave of the famous Croatian basketball player, Dražen Petrović.

Selected filmography