Gojko Mitić (; born June 13, 1940) is a German-Serbian actor and director. He gained great popularity in the GDR as the leading actor in historical and fictional Indian personalities in numerous DEFA Indian films. His popularity may be recognizable from the fact that both in the GDR and later in the Federal Republic of Germany attempts were made to attach labels to him: "DEFA bosses" on the one hand, "Winnetou of the East" on the other. However, Gojko Mitić never portrayed the latter role in a film (although he did later at the Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg). This Winnetou formulation refers more to the popularity of Gojko Mitić compared to the actor of the role from the West, the Frenchman Pierre Brice. According to Gojko Mitić, he speaks all Slavic languages, German, a little Italian and English. Life Mitić comes from a farming family in the village of Strojkovce near Leskovac (at the time Kingdom of Yugoslavia, today Serbia), on the Veternica in southern Serbia. Since his father Živojin took part in the liberation struggle of Yugoslav partisans in World War II, he grew up with his brother Dragan with his grandparents. After his school education, during which he was also taught German for four years, Mitić, at the age of 20, began to study sports at the Sports University in Belgrade. During his studies he made his first contact with film. At that time many international films were being produced in Yugoslavia, whose extras were mainly students from the Belgrade Sports University. From 1961 Mitić stepped up as a stuntman in Italian and British films. In 1963, he landed a tiny role in the Artur Brauner-produced Karl May film Old Shatterhand. Impressed by his athletic appearance, he was given the opportunity, after the Rialto production Winnetou Part 2, to take on a larger role in Unter Geiern as the chief's son, Wokadeh, in the next film in the series. Here his name appeared in the credits in German as "Georg Mitic". Then the DEFA in Yugoslavia also began to shoot DEFA Indian films: in 1966 Mitić played his first leading role as the Lakota chief Tokei-ihto in The Sons of the Big Bear. Nine million GDR citizens saw the film in the cinema. This started his film career, especially in the GDR, where he achieved extraordinary popularity. In 1967 he played the Mohican Chingachgook, in 1968