Mira Furlan

Mira Furlan — Biography

Moving from Yugoslav cinema to American television, the Croatian singer and actress Mira Furlan became known abroad above all for two series. On Lost (2004-2010) she played Danielle Rousseau, and on the science fiction show Babylon 5 (1993-1998) she was Delenn, the Minbari ambassador. She died in Los Angeles on 20 January 2021, aged 65, of West Nile virus disease.

After studying theatre at the Academy for Dramatic Arts in Zagreb she worked at the Croatian National Theatre and became a familiar face in Yugoslav film and television. She twice won the Golden Arena at the Pula Film Festival: for a supporting role in Kiklop in 1982 and for Lepota poroka in 1986. She played Ankica Vidmar in Emir Kusturica's Palme d'Or winner When Father Was Away on Business (1985). When war broke out in Croatia in 1991 she was dismissed by the National Theatre for refusing to give up a Belgrade stage production; a smear campaign followed, she was branded a national traitor and her Zagreb apartment was seized, returning to her only after a 17-year legal fight. That same year she and her husband emigrated to New York, where she joined the Actors Studio and worked on stage.

Later she appeared in films such as Cirkus Columbia, The Abandoned and Twice Born. In 2002 she returned to Croatia after eleven years to play the title role in Medea. She also wrote: her newspaper columns were collected as Totalna rasprodaja in 2010, and she wrote an autobiography in English.