- An animal rights group kicked off its first antifur campaign in eastern Europe with roadside billboards featuring Goran Visnjic and his pet dog Bugsy -- The billboards show a picture of Visnjic cradling Bugsy and the slogan: If you wouldn't wear your dog, please don't wear any fur. (January 4, 2003)
- In several interviews Visnjic has served as something of a tourism spokesman for Croatia (most notably In Style, March 2001), reminding readers that the war is over, the coast is beautiful, and the people are friendly.
- The character Jimmy Angelov in PRACTICAL MAGIC (1998) was originally named Jimmy Hawkins, and was a Texas redneck. The part was rewritten as Eastern European for Goran Visnjic after director Griffin Dunne saw him in WELCOME TO SARAJEVO (1997) and 'Madonna''s Power of Goodbye video.
- Is a veteran of two military forces in his homeland.
- He completed his training as a paratrooper in the Yugaslav army when he was 18 years old.
- Goran joined the Crotian army after his service to the Yugaslav army. He fought in the war with the Balkans.
- People magazine named Goran The Sexiest Import in 1999.
- Nickname: Sime (pronounced SHIH-meh)
- The younger of two sons.
- Father was a bus driver; mother worked in a food market.
- Appeared in Madonna's 1998 music video, The Power of Goodbye.
- Last name is pronounced 'VISH-nyich'
- Trained at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb.
- Played Hamlet at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival each each year from 1993 to 2000 six years.
- Hobbies: fencing, swimming, and diving.
- Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world [2000]
- When word came through that he had been accepted in the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, his brother volunteered to take his place in the Army so he could study his craft.
- Appeared in an anti-fur billboard campaign for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals with his dog, Bugsy, beginning in January 2003. The ads read: If you wouldn't wear your dog, please don't wear any fur. The campaign was PETA's first in eastern Europe.
- Nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at Screen Actors Guild Awards for ER (2001)
- Nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at Screen Actors Guild Awards for ER (2000)
Quotes- On why he extended his military service: "When somebody is attacking your hometown, and you're just sitting in the basement, you feel really useless. I felt I had to do it to defend my country. That's normal."
- "I'm working with a dialect coach, but it's not helping. I want everyone to understand what I am talking about, like 'peritoneal lavage', you know, these medical expressions... I don't want to lose my accent, I just want it to become smaller."
- On why he doesn't give many interviews: "Every time I perform, I work really hard to give part of myself to the audience. Then I do an interview and I read some story that just isn't true, or someone draws a crazy conclusion about my life, and it's such a betrayal. It hasn't happened here, but in Croatia, I've had to stop reading about myself. I don't think actors mean to be secretive - they just don't want strangers looking through their kitchen window."
- "I don't understand the word 'hunk.'"
- "The first time I came here it was 10 days, then 15 days, then three months. Now this time I have to stay to April. I'm slowly getting stuck here and I miss Europe."
- "I would really like to do theatre in my native language because that would be like so relaxed after ER ... English ... those medical words!"
- "ER is a pretty big deal in Croatia. When my agent called and told me about this show, I said, 'Are we talking about the same ER?' And I thought about it for half a second and then said, 'Yes, of course!' I was watching them in Croatia when I was still at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, and now I'm working with them."
- "Making my English better is a hard job, a slow job. But it's getting better. Three years ago it would have taken me a half hour to say this sentence."
- "My only goal here in the States is to really try to work on the accent as much as I can, to really polish it to be really good. With an accent like this you're still forced to play certain parts and some parts you can't get, so that's my first concern."
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