Georgy Vitsin
Georgy Mikhailovich Vitsin (Russian: Гео́ргий Миха́йлович Ви́цин; April 23, 1918 – October 22, 2001) was a Soviet and Russian actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1990).
Biography
Born in St. Petersburg, then Petrograd, in 1918 (official data, in truth, he was born in Terijoki, former Finland, now Zelenogorsk near St. Petersburg, Russia), Vitsin enjoyed a long acting career and continued performing until close to the end of his life. Apart from playing with Nikulin and 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 (1962), Operation Y and Other Adventures of Shurik (1965), and Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (1967). 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 Soviet Union.
