Georgy Vitsin


Georgy Mikhailovich Vitsin was a Soviet and Russian actor. People's Artist of the USSR.

Biography

Vitsin was born in St. Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd, in 1917. He enjoyed a long acting career and continued performing until close to the end of his life. Apart from playing with Yuri Nikulin and Yevgeny Morgunov, he appeared in dozens of films that earned him the adoration of millions.
Modest and sympathetic characters played by Vitsin evoked kindly feelings of viewers. At the same time the actor played in detective, historical and lyrical feature films.
His first film roles date to the 1940s. He gained nationwide popularity in the former Soviet Union with the emergence of a series of 1960s comedies by director Leonid Gaidai. He played the role of the Coward among a trio of colorful, scheming characters in such Gaidai movies as Bootleggers, Operation Y and Other Adventures of Shurik, and Kidnapping, Caucasian Style. The last two subsequently beat the Soviet all-time record of ticket sales. The trio of actors, including the late Yuri Nikulin and Yevgeny Morgunov, was "the most popular ensemble in the history of the national cinema." In 1990, he was awarded the top artistic title of the Soviet era, that of People's Artist of the USSR.
In spite of the plenty of his characters Vitsin's talent deserved something greater and he never played the major role of his life. “Vitsin is awfully gifted and both of us together are not worth his finger”, his partners Nikulin and Morgunov said about him.
According to an Oscar-winning film director Nikita Mikhalkov, Vitsin "was one of those rare people and actors whom upon meeting, you immediately feel as if they must know just as much about you as you know about them." According to Mikhalkov, Vitsin was also rare in that his popularity did not affect his personality. He was modest to the point that even in the years leading up to his death, when his financial circumstances were abysmal, he never asked for help. Russian media reported that Vitsin had declined into alcoholism and vagrancy but these reports were false.
During the last seven years of his life Georgy Vitsin did not act in films and appeared only in comic concerts of the Theatre of Film Actor.
On October 22, 2001 at 4:30 p.m., the People's Artist of the USSR died. Georgy Vitsin was buried at Vagankovo Cemetery, Moscow.
A monument to Georgy Vitsin was established in Zelenogorsk in 2008 marking the town's 460th jubilee and the 90th anniversary since the actor's birthday.

Selected filmography

Film

  1. 1937: Bespridannitsa
  2. 1944: Ivan the Terrible — oprichnik
  3. 1945: Hello Moscow! — railwayman
  4. 1946: The Great Glinka — spectator
  5. 1952: Composer Glinka — Nikolai Gogol
  6. 1953: Belinsky — Nikolai Gogol
  7. 1954: The Boys from Leningrad — Vasia Vesnushkin
  8. 1955: Twelfth Night — sir Andrew
  9. 1956: Maxim Perepelitsa — grandpa Musiy
  10. 1956: The Mexican — Billy Carthey
  11. 1956: Murder on Dante Street — Pitu
  12. 1957: Poet —
  13. 1957: Don Quixote — Sanson Carrasco
  14. 1957: She Loves You — Kostya Kanareykin
  15. 1957: :ru:Борец и клоун |Wrestler and a clown — Enrico
  16. 1958: :ru:Новый аттракцион |New attraction — Semion Iljich
  17. 1958: A Groom from the Other World — Pyotr Petrovich Fikusov
  18. 1958: A Girl with a Guitar
  19. 1959: Ottsy i deti — Sitnikov
  20. 1959: I Was a Satellite of the Sun — Uchyonyy
  21. 1959: :ru:Василий Суриков |Vasily Surikov — Ilya Repin
  22. 1959: Kak possorilis Ivan Ivanovich s Ivanom Nikiforovichem — Gogol
  23. 1960: Tri rasskaza Chekhova — Degtyaryov
  24. 1961: Dog Barbos and Unusual Cross — Coward
  25. 1961: End of old Beryozovka — Geometry teacher
  26. 1961: Bootleggers — Coward
  27. 1962: Artist from Kokhanivka — Grandfather Kuzma
  28. 1962: The Way to the pier — intellectual in the sobering-up station
  29. 1962: Colleagues
  30. 1963: Molchat tolko statui — Jacques Meslier
  31. 1963: Strictly Business — avantyurist Sam
  32. 1963: Kain XVIII — Freelance Hangman
  33. 1963: :ru:Первый троллейбус |The first trolleybus — drunk man
  34. 1963: :ru:Слепая птица |Blind Bird — train passenger
  35. 1963: Short stories
  36. 1964: A Tale of Lost Times — evil wizard Andrew
  37. 1964: :ru:Весенние хлопоты |Spring chores — uncle Pudya
  38. 1965: Balzaminov's Marriage — Misha Balzaminov
  39. 1965: Give Me a Book of Complaints — Zaveduyushchiy otdelom
  40. 1965: :ru:Зайчик |Zaychik — assistant director
  41. 1965: Operation Y and Other Adventures of Shurik — The Coward
  42. 1965: :ru:Дорога к морю |Road to the sea
  43. 1966: Byvayet i tak
  44. 1966: Udivitelnaya istoriya, pokhozhaya na skazki
  45. 1966: Podi tuda, ne znayu kuda — Narrator
  46. 1966: :ru:Кто придумал колесо? |Who invented the wheel? — Uncle
  47. 1966: The Formula of the Rainbow — Director of the toy factory
  48. 1966: Kidnapping, Caucasian Style — Coward
  49. 1967: Seven Old Men and One Girl — Coward
  50. 1968: Tatyanin den — Man Offering New Chronology
  51. 1968: :ru:Спасите утопающего |Save the drowning — Militia Precinct Chief
  52. 1968: An Old, Old Tale — Dobryy bolshebnik
  53. 1969: The Diamond Arm — Drunk Man
  54. 1969: Golfstrim — Igor's Father
  55. 1969: In the thirteenth hour of the night — Ovinny
  56. 1969: Kabacjok "13 chairs" — pan Cypa
  57. 1970: Step off the roof — englishman
  58. 1970: Guardian — Tebenkov
  59. 1970: As we were looking Tishka — Petty Officer Stepanov
  60. 1971: Kak my iskali Tishku
  61. 1971: The Twelve Chairs — fitter Mechnikov
  62. 1971: The Shadow — doctor
  63. 1971: Gentlemen of Fortune — Gavrila Sheremetev
  64. 1971: Spring tale — Tsar Berendey
  65. 1972: The mortal enemy — Yegor
  66. 1972: Tobacco Captain — cook
  67. 1973: Incorrigible Liar — Aleksey Ivanovich Tiutiurin
  68. 1973: The Sannikov Land — Ignaty
  69. 1973: Chipollino — lawer Vetch
  70. 1973: Have you ever loved?
  71. 1974: Tsarevich Prosha — «King Katorz IX»
  72. 1974: :ru:Северная рапсодия |North Rhapsody — seller
  73. 1974: :ru:Дорогой мальчик |Honey boy — Macintosh
  74. 1974: :ru:Моя судьба |My destiny — drunk man
  75. 1975: :ru:Автомобиль, скрипка и собака Клякса|Car, Violin and the Dog Klyaksa — Banjo / Guitar
  76. 1975: :ru:Большой аттракцион |The big attraction — Gankin
  77. 1975: It Can't Be! — Papanya nevesty
  78. 1975: Finest, the brave Falcon — Agafon
  79. 1975: Puzyrki
  80. 1975: Shag navstrechu — people at the buffet
  81. 1976: The Blue Bird — Sugar
  82. 1976: Shag navstrechu — Man
  83. 1976: Au-u! — Learning
  84. 1976: :ru:Пастух Янка |Shepherd Yanka — Prince Kukimor
  85. 1976: :ru:Весёлое сновидение, или Смех и слёзы |Merry dreams or Laughter and Tears — Krivello
  86. 1977: Twelve Chairs — Bezenchuk
  87. 1977: :ru:Солнце, снова солнце |The sun, the sun again
  88. 1977: :ru:Пока бьют часы |Until the clock strikes — Grandfather / The Great Gardener
  89. 1977: :ru:Маринка, Янка и тайны королевского замка |Marinka, Yanka and the secrets of the royal castle — Prince Kukimor
  90. 1978: Istoriya s metranpazhem — Semyon Kaloshin
  91. 1980: Borrowing Matchsticks — Tahvo Kenonen, tailor
  92. 1980: :ru:Комедия давно минувших дней |Comedy of bygone days — Coward
  93. 1981: Ruki vverkh!
  94. 1982: Love by Request — Hapless Boyfriend-artist
  95. 1982: Sorcerers — cat
  96. 1983: The Pokrovsky Gate — Savelich
  97. 1985: :ru:Соперницы |Rivals — old man
  98. 1985: Dangerous for Your Life! — Alexander Chokolov
  99. 1986: :ru:Путешествие пана Кляксы |Travel Pan Klyaksa
  100. 1986: :ru:Я вожатый форпоста |I counselor outpost
  101. 1992: :ru:Выстрел в гробу |Shot in a coffin — Colonel Zakusnyak
  102. 1992: Gospoda artisty — Nil Palych
  103. 1993: :ru:Бравые парни |Brave guys — Maj. Vasily Griboyedov
  104. 1994: A Few Love Stories — Fornari
  105. 1994: :ru:Господа артисты |Lord actors — Nil Palych
  106. 1994: Hagi-Tragger'' — Genrikh Yanovich

    Cartoons

  107. 1947: The Humpbacked Horse — the chamberlain
  108. 1955: The Enchanted Boy — Rozenbaum
  109. 1956: The Twelve Months — Raven / Herald / Parrot / February
  110. 1959: Beloved Beauty — Trukha
  111. 1960: The Adventures of Buratino — Giuseppe / Clown / Crow
  112. 1960: It Was I Who Drew the Little Man — the Confectioner / Poet
  113. 1961: The Key —
  114. 1968: Film, Film, Film — Film director
  115. 1976: Konyok-gorbunok — Spalnik
  116. 1981: Maria, Mirabella — King
  117. 1991: Priklyucheniya volshebnogo globusa, ili prodelki vedmy — The Little Signor
  118. 1992: Oy, rebyata, ta-ra-ra