Gojko Mitić (Serbian Cyrillic: Гојко Митић; born June 13, 1940) is a Serbian-German actor and director.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The fact that he actually performed all the stunts himself as an actor, such as Horse Running and in various other scenes, gave his portrayal of the heroic character a high degree of credibility.

In 1976, the GDR rock group Express paid homage to him in their song Ein Wigwam steht in Babelsberg.

In addition to acting, Mitić has also appeared as a singer (1977 with Löscht das Feuer (music: Arndt Bause[5]), 2010 reissued by Engel B. in a more modern guise; 1978 with A Man Can Tell a Lot) and moderator (Ein Kessel Buntes, gong) on.

[6] At the same theater he played the leading role in a musical based on the novel Alexis Sorbas by Nikos Kazantzakis at the 2009 Castle Festival.

[8] In 2013, Gojko Mitić returned to TV screens as the level-headed Comanche chief Tahmahkera in the Sat1 western production Striving for Freedom [de] (with Benno Fürmann, Emilia Schüle and Nadja Uhl, among others).

In an attempt to move away from his fame based on these Westerns, Mitić, in his later career, increasingly sought to appear in other genres, on film, on television and on stage.