 Ratko Perić was born in the village of Tuk, in the municipality of Rovišće, near Bjelovar in present-day Croatia, where his parents, Grgo and Anica née Raguž, moved from Rotimlja near Stolac.He was baptised on 5 February 1944 in the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Rovišće.The family moved back to Rotimlja in 1946.