Tomislav Bradanovic Lincir

Tomislav Bradanovic Lincir

Tomislav Bradanovic Lincir, longtime resident of Rancho Palos Verdes & San Pedro, died on 25 January 2015. He was 99 years old.

He was born on 9 April 1915 on the Island of Vis, Croatia (then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). At the age of nine, Lincir traveled with his mother and sister to Valparaiso, Chile where a considerable part of his family had been previously established. There he attended school.

In 1931, he emigrated to the United States where he attended Lincoln High School in Los Angeles. He later took courses at UCLA and USC. He was various employed as a dishwasher, ditch digger, and worked in a bottle and canning factory. He found work as a journalist, ballet dancer and a fashion model for Maybelline and Max Factor.

A member of the Screen Actors Guild (under two different names), Lincir worked in early television and for Paramount and RKO Pictures including the films My Sister Eileen, International Squadron (starring Ronald Reagan), They All Kissed the Bride, The Great Victor Herbert, and South of Pago Pago. He boasted of never having had an agent, and so never having had to give up ten percent of his earnings. He employed unconventional methods to obtain acting jobs, including impersonating a gardener by picking up a wheelbarrow and walking onto the Paramount lot to gain access to a casting call. He got the part.

During the Second World War, he continued to act as well as work as an engineer for Lockheed and as a translator of technical manuals into various languages, of which he was fluent in eight. During this time he married Rosalie Ann Figge (1922-2011), a professional ballet dancer. They formed the dance team "Rosalie & Alva" and danced with a number of luminaries including Maria Tallchief and Bronislava Nijinska. Nijinska was said to have admired the heights to which Lincir would jump.

After the war the Lincirs performed across Europe, in Mexico, and through South America. In 1952, they established the Rosalie & Alva School of Ballet & the Allied Arts in San Pedro. The studio continues to operate under their son Matt.

He enjoyed reading, talking, wood working, tending his fruit trees, and spending time with his family. He has left three sons, Thomas, Matt (Wanda), and Mark (Clarissa), six grandchildren, and two great grandchildren as well as relatives on four continents. Services will be held this Saturday at Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes. Please sign the guestbook at www.dailybreeze.com/obits.