Greatest Croatian

Greatest Croatian
The Greatest Croatian was an open-access poll conducted over five weeks in 2003 by the Croatian weekly Nacional.
The public was invited to vote via the magazine's website, text messages and postcards to determine the "Greatest Croatian" in history. Almost 8,000 votes were received during the course of the poll (6,507 via Internet, 520 text messages and 752 postcards), and the final results were published in the magazine's 6 January 2004 issue.
Final list
Due to the nature of the poll used to select and rank, the results do not pretend to be an objective assessment. The poll also had no rules on ethnicity or nationality of candidates, with readers free to send in votes for whomever they felt contributed to the history and society of modern-day Croatia.
In addition, Nacional published the list of people ordered by votes received, although two of these were listed twice in duplicate entries, which was likely due to tabulation error:
Painter Vlaho Bukovac was listed at No. 64 (with 13 votes) and No. 80 (with 7 votes). If these had been added up, he would have moved up to share No. 52 spot, with filmmaker Dušan Vukotić and pop singer Severina.
Nobel Prize-winning chemist Vladimir Prelog was listed at No. 57 (with 17 votes) and No. 96 (with 2 votes). If these had been added up, he would have moved up to share No. 54 spot, with politician Ivica Račan and folk rock singer Marko Perković Thompson.
Without the two duplicates, the list would have had 96 entries, but since two of these involve pairs of notable people (17th-century noblemen Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan at No. 37, and 19th-century explorer brothers Mirko and Stjepan Seljan at No. 88) the list ends up having 98 individuals.
They are as follows:
Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), revolutionary, statesman and president of Yugoslavia 1953–1980
Ruđer Bošković (1711–1787), physicist, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher
Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981), writer, playwright and poet
Franjo Tuđman (1922–1999), statesman, President of Croatia 1990–99
Dražen Petrović (1964–1993), basketball player, Olympic silver medalist
Stjepan Mesić (b. 1934), President of Croatia 2000–10
Tin Ujević (1891–1955), poet
Stevo Karapandža (b. 1947), celebrity chef
Tomislav of Croatia (?–928), 10th-century ruler of Croatia
Rahim Ademi (b. 1954), Croatian Army general
Stipe Šuvar (1936–2004), sociologist and politician
Vlado Gotovac (1930–2000), poet and politician
Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962), sculptor and architect
Josip Juraj Strossmayer (1815–1905), Roman Catholic bishop, benefactor and politician
Janica Kostelić (b. 1982), alpine ski racer, Olympic gold medalist
Stjepan Radić (1871–1928), early 20th century politician
Josip Jelačić (1801–1859), 19th-century Ban (viceroy) of Croatia
Ante Starčević (1823–1896), 19th-century politician
Alojzije Stepinac (1898–1960), Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Zagreb 1937–1960
Branimir Štulić (b. 1953), singer, songwriter and poet
Rade Šerbedžija (b. 1946), stage and film actor
Matija Gubec (c. 1556–1573), 16th-century leader of a peasant revolt
Mirko Ilić (b. 1956), graphic designer and comics artist
Miroslav Radman (b. 1944), biologist
Ivan Supek (1915–2007), physicist, philosopher, and writer
Franjo Kuharić (1919–2002), Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Zagreb 1970–1997
Branko Bauer (1921–2002), film director
Ante Gotovina (b. 1955), Croatian army lieutenant-general
Miljenko Smoje (1923–1995), writer and journalist
Goran Ivanišević (b. 1971), tennis player, winner of Wimbledon
Marija Jurić Zagorka (1873–1957), journalist and novelist
Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874–1938), children's writer
Ljudevit Gaj (1809–1872), 19th-century linguist, politician and writer
Marko Marulić (1450–1524), 15th-century poet
Petar Zrinski (1621–1671) & Fran Krsto Frankopan (1643–1671), 17th-century noblemen, leaders of the Magnate conspiracy
Mile Dedaković (b. 1951), soldier, one of the Croatian commanders in the 1991 Battle of Vukovar
Lavoslav Ružička (1887–1976), scientist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate
Juraj Dalmatinac (1410–1473), medieval sculptor and architect
Krešimir Ćosić (1948–1995), basketball player, Olympic medalist and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee
Slavoljub Penkala (1871–1922), engineer and inventor, created the mechanical pencil
Vladimir Nazor (1876–1949), author and politician
Ivan Gundulić (1589–1638), baroque Ragusan poet
Arsen Dedić (1938–2015), singer-songwriter, composer and poet
Marin Držić (1508–1567), renaissance Ragusan playwright
Tarik Filipović (b. 1972), actor and television personality
Goran Bregović (b. 1950), musician and composer
Mate Ujević (1901–1967), poet and lexicographer
Savka Dabčević-Kučar (1923–2009), politician, one of the leaders of the Croatian Spring movement
Miroslav Blažević (b. 1935), association football coach, led Croatia to third place in the 1998 FIFA World Cup
Dušan Vukotić (1927–1998), cartoonist, winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
Severina Vučković (b. 1972), pop singer and actress
Ivica Račan (1944–2007), politician and prime minister of Croatia 2000–2003
Marko Perković Thompson (b. 1966), pop singer
Ivan Goran Kovačić (1913–1943), poet and writer, killed in World War II
Vladimir Prelog (1906–1998), scientist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate
Branko Lustig (1932–2019), film producer, two-time Academy Awards winner
Dražen Budiša (b. 1948), politician, one of the leaders of the Croatian Spring movement
Mate Parlov (1948–2008), boxer, Olympic gold medalist
Vatroslav Lisinski (1819–1854), 19th-century composer
Faust Vrančić (1551–1617), polymath and inventor, best known for his 16th-century parachute design
Boris Dvornik (1939–2008), actor
Vlaho Bukovac (1855–1922), painter
Andrija Štampar (1888–1958), promoter of social medicine
Bernard Vukas (1927–1983), footballer, best known for his two spells at HNK Hajduk Split
Zinka Kunc (1906–1989), opera soprano, performed at New York's Metropolitan Opera and Milan's La Scala opera houses
Antun Mihanović (1796–1861), poet, best known for penning the lyrics to the Croatian anthem
Fabijan Šovagović (1932–2001), actor
Slavenka Drakulić (b. 1949), writer and journalist
August Šenoa (1838–1881), 19th-century novelist
Andrija Maurović (1901–1981), comic book artist, known as the "father of Croatian comics"
Antun Augustinčić (1900–1979), sculptor
Ante Topić Mimara (1898–1987), art collector, founder of the Mimara Museum
Edo Murtić (1921–2005), painter
Ivo Pogorelić (b. 1958), pianist
Bruno Bušić (1939–1978), promoter of Croatia's independence, assassinated in exile in 1978
Frano Supilo (1870–1917), politician and journalist, founder of Novi list daily
Goran Višnjić (b. 1972), actor, best known for starring in the American TV series ER
Vlaho Bukovac (duplicate entry, see #64)
Andrija Hebrang (1899–1949), politician
Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger (1856–1936), paleontologist, discovered the Neanderthal site near Krapina
Juraj Križanić (1618–1683), 17th-century Catholic missionary
Marin Getaldić (1568–1626), Ragusan scientist, best known for his work in optics
Antun Gustav Matoš (1873–1914), poet and essayist
Franjo Šeper (1905–1981), Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Zagreb 1960–1970
Oliver Mlakar (b. 1935), television presenter
Mirko Seljan (1871–1913) & Stjepan Seljan (1875–1936), explorers best known for their travels in South America and Africa
Ivan Lupis (1813–1875), officer of the Austrian Navy, credited as the inventor of the torpedo
Ante Trumbić (1864–1938), politician
Franjo Trenk (1711–1749), Austrian officer, known as "father of the military band"
Ivo Robić (1923–2000), singer and songwriter
Ivan Generalić (1914–1992), naïve art painter
Lovro pl. Matačić (1899–1985), conductor
Slava Raškaj (1877–1906), 19th-century deaf woman painter
Vladimir Prelog (duplicate entry, see #57)
Branko Gavella (1885–1962), theatre director and essayist
Krešo Golik (1922–1996), film director and screenwriter
Bartol Kašić (1575–1650), linguist, wrote the first Croatian grammar and translated the Bible into Croatian
Marko Turina (b. 1937), cardiac surgeon, first surgeon to operate a congenital heart defect on a newborn
See also
100 Greatest Britons
Greatest Britons spin-offs
References
External links
Croatia
Lists of Croatian people
2003 in Croatia