Zeljko Ivanek is a Slovenian-American stage, film and television actor who was born on August 15, 1957 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, which was at the time a part of Yugoslavia. His family immigrated to the United States three years later in 1960. Ivanek would eventually go on to pursue higher learning at Yale University, where he graduated in 1978, and then received even further training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He began performing on Broadway, and has been nominated for no less than three Tony Awards. Among he feature films that he has worked on are Black Hawk Down, The Manchurian Candidate, and Live Free or Die Hard. He has also acted in television series such as
The X-Files, Damages, and Homicide: Life on the Street.
Governor James Devlin is portrayed by Zeljko Ivanek in the HBO prison drama television series Oz. He is the governor of the state in which the show takes place, and is despised by most of the inmates and even some of the facility’s staff themselves. Devlin is a main proponent of anti-prisoner legislation acts, which drive home the belief of no perks for prisoners. He is also on trial for a number of political charges.
(Photo courtesy of HBO)