To outsiders, he was the eccentric “Tarzan” actor who fed his pet lions and tigers by hand.
But to those who knew him, Steve Sipek was a gentle giant who never really recovered from the tragic loss of his precious Bobo, a Bengal tiger shot dead by a wildlife officer in 2004.
Sipek, a Croatian-born actor who blamed the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission for the “murder” of 6-year-old Bobo, died Saturday. He was 77.
“He was larger than life,” said Melanie Boynes, a teacher who befriended Sipek after Bobo was killed. “He was soft-spoken for being as big as he was, 6-foot-4 and over 200 pounds. Everybody knew him. But he was always Steve to me. Not Tarzan.”
Sipek, a former champion body builder, starred in a Spanish remake of “Tarzan” in 1970.
According to a former website set up by Sipek, his love of big cats began during the filming of another “Tarzan” film. When a fire scene blazed out of control on set, a lion trained to save him in the film did so in real life.
‘They murdered my Bobo’
Fifteen years ago, Sipek made headlines when 600-pound Bobo escaped his five-acre Loxahatchee compound. Sipek wanted to bring Bobo home, but 26 hours later, his beloved tiger was dead.
“They murdered my Bobo,” a distraught Sipek said at the time.
The incident sparked a widespread outcry, with animal lovers taunting wildlife officers with outraged emails and death threats.
A candlelight vigil for Bobo near Sipek’s home attracted a crowd of at least 1,000 supporters. Some held signs saying, “Save a tiger, shoot a wildlife officer.”
In 2012, wildlife officers raided Sipek’s compound and seized a trio of big cats from the property, citing caging violations. Sipek was arrested and jailed for one day.
The following year, a judge ruled the animals should go to a big cat rescue in Okeechobee, close enough for Sipek to visit.
But when Sipek’s black leopard died a few years later, a friend who runs an exotic animal sanctuary in Live Oak offered to take in his tigers, Bo and Lepa.
Sipek moved too, leaving behind his life in Loxahatchee.
“He walked away from everything he knew and a home he’d had for 50 years so he could be with his cats,” said Vera Chaples, who runs the Mystic Jungle sanctuary in Live Oak.
When Bobo died, Sipek buried him on the grounds of his compound next to a tombstone with an image of a tiger engraved in the marble.
Saved by a lion
When Sipek packed up his belongings for the move, he brought along Bobo’s headstone and 18 others made for all the big cats still buried on the property, Chaples said.
“He wanted to dig them up, but I told him it was not a good idea,” she said. “I can tell you this, those cats were his life. They were his family.”
Sipek’s obsession with big cats began during his acting days, Chaples said.
“He was tied to a stake and the set caught on fire,” she said. “A lion rushed in and dragged him to safety. And he pledged his allegiance to cats after that.”
Sipek left his last two tigers, Bo and Lepa, to Boynes. She visits them just about every day and manages their Facebook page, lordandladyofliveoak.
“I don’t think he ever got over Bobo,” Boynes said of Sipek. “I didn’t expect him to die now. But now he will live on through Bo and Lepa. He’ll always be with me, through them.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4554
