Dušan Gruborović

Dušan "Duško" Gruborović was a Croatian actor, writer and lyricist, born on 9 May 1956 in Mali Gradac near Glina. He graduated from the Academy of Drama Arts in Zagreb in 1981 and that same year joined the Kerempuh satirical theatre in Zagreb, where he stayed for the rest of his life, playing many roles and winning many awards.

He was seen often on television and less on film. His television work ranged from Velo misto (1980), Smogovci and Putovanje u Vučjak to the comedy series Jel' me netko tražio? (1991-1995), in which he played Josip Brda, a role he returned to in Nad lipom 35. His films included Medeni mjesec (1983), Gospoda i drugovi (1987), Zlatne godine (1993) and Kad mrtvi zapjevaju (1998).

Gruborović published three books of poems and wrote about two hundred songs, both folk and pop, which won him about ten awards. A 1993 interview called him a well-known Zagreb actor and the man who wrote all the lyrics for Nizvodno od raja, the first solo album of Rajko Dujmić of Novi Fosili; he liked to say that he did not write his poems so much as write them down. Discogs credits him on records by Jasna Zlokić, Zlatni Dukati, Gazde and Krunoslav Kićo Slabinac in the 1990s, and he wrote the lyrics of "Zaboravi" on the Novi Fosili album Pričaj mi o ljubavi (1998).

With Vedran Ostojić he wrote the words of "Daješ mi krila", with which Ivan Mikulić won Dora in 2004. Sung in English as "You Are the Only One", it finished twelfth at the Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul. In 2006 he received the Zvonimir Golob award for the best unpublished poem.

Duško Gruborović died of a heart attack on 4 December 2006 in Zagreb, on the set of Nad lipom 35, after asking his colleagues to stop filming because he felt unwell. The video gathered here is "Čekat ću te", a poem by Gruborović read by the actor Božidar Alić.