Gojko Mitić was born June 13 1940 in Strojkovce near Leskovac Morava Banovina Kingdom of Yugoslavia is a Serbian director actor stuntman and author He lives in Berlin He is known for a numerous series of Red Westerns from the GDR DEFA Studios featuring Native Americans as the heroes rather than white settlers as in John Fords Westerns Beginning with The Sons of Great Bear 1966 Mitić starred in 12 films of this type between 1966 and 1984 He contributed to the popular image of Native Americans in Germanspeaking countries 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 Among other roles he played Spartacus on stage and presented several TV shows He also played Karl Mays Winnetou in seasons at the KarlMayFestspiele until 2006 in Bad Segeberg near Hamburg Germany In one episode he played a role at the German television program Schloss Einstein Bulgarian punk rock ska group Hipodil composed a song Bate Goiko dedicated to Gojko Mitić In 2010 he received the Brothers Karić Award in Serbia from Wikipedia