Steve Sipek also known as Steve Hawkes (born 1942?) was born in Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

 and emigrated to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 in 1959.

He gained recognition by playing Tarzan

Tarzan

Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...

 in a Spanish-made film Tarzán en la gruta del oro/King of the Jungle/Tarzan in the Golden Grotto alongside Kitty Swan, filmed in Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

, South America, Florida, Africa, Spain and Italy where the producers ran out of money and had to begin filming again. Sipek, working under the name Steve Hawkes, claimed the film company couldn't pay the huge licensing fees from Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...

' estate and settled for the name "Zan" for the character.

A 1972 sequel Tarzan and the Brown Prince

Tarzan and the Brown Prince

Tarzan and the Brown Prince is a 1972 Spanish/Italian co-production Tarzan film with Steve Hawkes and Kitty Swan repeating their roles from 1968's King of the Jungle. The film became a serialised Filipino graphic novel written in Tagalog and illustrated by Franc Reyeswho acted as an illustator on...

followed with sequences filmed in Rainbow Springs, Florida, 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. The lion in the film who had been trained to remove Hawkes' bonds freed him. though he suffered 90% burns to his body.Sipek vowed he would pay the lion back by looking after big cats.

Sipek also wrote, directed and starred in other films such as Blood Freak

Blood Freak

Blood Freak is a 1972 American horror film, directed by Brad F. Grinter and starring Steve Hawkes.-Plot:The film follows Vietnam veteran Herschell who, whilst riding down the highway on his motorbike, helps a young religious girl called Angel , whose car has broken down...

and Stevie, Samson and Delilah.

An animal lover, Sipek started his own Florida animal sanctuary that attracted attention when a Bengal tiger

Bengal Tiger

The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...

escaped and was killed.

External links

• Steve Hawkes at ERB http://www.erbzine.com/mag27/2772.html
• Jungleworld website http://www.jungleworld.org/