Stjepan Šipek (Sisak 1942 – June 23, 2019), also known by his screen name Steve Hawkes, was a Croatian-born American actor and animal sanctuary owner.
[1][2] Sipek was born in Yugoslavia, what is now Croatia, relocated to Canada in 1959, and subsequently acted in B-movies as Steve Hawkes.
Sipek, working under the name Steve Hawkes, claimed that the film company could not pay the huge licensing fees from Edgar Rice Burroughs' estate and settled for the name "Zan" for the character.
[3] A 1972 sequel, Tarzan and the Brown Prince, followed with sequences filmed in Rainbow Springs, Florida,[4] where both Sipek and Swan were burned in a fire that got out of control.
When the two actors were tied down in a scene, some spilled fuel began a blaze that panicked the film crew.