Goran Visnjic: Eastern Blockbuster (2003 Most Beautiful People) Paper, April, 2003 by Rebecca Klein He's Six-foot-four, but Goran Visnjic doesn't just stand out in Hollywood because of his height. The Croatian-born Visnjic is a trained paratrooper and skilled in antiterrorism and riot-control tactics. In 1991, after completing mandatory military service, he volunteered to defend his homeland against the Serbs. But he wasn't always a tough guy. Visnjic, 30, began acting in the theater at the age of 10. He went on to earn three of Croatia's best-actor awards for his stage turn as Hamlet, which helped him nab a role in the critically acclaimed 1997 film Welcome to Sarajevo. The executive producer of ER saw the swarthy actor in Sarajevo and cast him in a recurring role as Dr. Luka Kovac on the hit series. Since then, he's appeared in a number of American and foreign films, including The Deep End opposite Tilda Swinton, and he'll star in the independent crime thriller Hypnotic this spring. Despite his sudden success in the States, Visnjic is still fiercely loyal to his roots. "I just finished a Croatian film called Long Dark Night, which I'm really proud of," he says. "I've been working on it for the past five to six years with my father-in-law, who directed it. I think this role is really one of the bigger things I've done in my life."