# Georgy Vitsin

Georgy Mikhailovich Vitsin (Russian: Георгий Михайлович Вицин; 18 April 1917 – 22 October 2001) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1990).

## Biography

Vitsin was born in Zelenogorsk, Saint Petersburg in 1917 (Soviet documents list him as having been born in Petrograd — now Saint Petersburg). 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 Coward, Fool, and Pro of colorful, scheming characters in such Gaidai movies as Moonshiners (1962), Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures (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 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 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.
He died on 22 October 2001 at 4:30 p.m. He 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

* 1937: Bespridannitsa
* 1944: Ivan the Terrible — oprichnik
* 1945: Hello Moscow! — railwayman
* 1946: The Great Glinka — spectator
* 1952: Composer Glinka — Nikolai Gogol
* 1953: Belinsky — Nikolai Gogol
* 1954: The Boys from Leningrad — Vasia Vesnushkin
* 1955: Twelfth Night — sir Andrew
* 1956: Maxim Perepelitsa — grandpa Musiy
* 1956: The Mexican — Billy Carthey
* 1956: Murder on Dante Street — Pitu
* 1957: Poet — (uncredited)
* 1957: Don Quixote — Sanson Carrasco
* 1957: She Loves You — Kostya Kanareykin
* 1957: Wrestler and a clown — Enrico
* 1958: New attraction — Semion Iljich
* 1958: A Groom from the Other World — Pyotr Petrovich Fikusov
* 1958: A Girl with a Guitar
* 1959: Ottsy i deti — Sitnikov
* 1959: I Was a Satellite of the Sun — Uchyonyy
* 1959: Vasily Surikov — Ilya Repin
* 1959: Kak possorilis Ivan Ivanovich s Ivanom Nikiforovichem — Gogol
* 1960: Tri rasskaza Chekhova — Degtyaryov (segment "A Vengeance")
* 1961: Dog Barbos and Unusual Cross (Short) — Coward
* 1961: End of old Beryozovka — Geometry teacher
* 1961: Moonshiners — Coward (segment "Pyos Barbos i neobychainy kross")
* 1962: Artist from Kokhanivka — Grandfather Kuzma
* 1962: The Way to the pier — intellectual in the sobering-up station
* 1962: Colleagues
* 1963: Molchat tolko statui — Jacques Meslier
* 1963: Strictly Business — avantyurist Sam (segment "The Ransom of Red Chief")
* 1963: Kain XVIII — Freelance Hangman
* 1963: The first trolleybus — drunk man
* 1963: Blind Bird — train passenger
* 1963: Short stories
* 1964: A Tale of Lost Times — evil wizard Andrew
* 1964: Spring chores — uncle Pudya
* 1965: Balzaminov's Marriage — Misha Balzaminov
* 1965: Give Me a Book of Complaints — Zaveduyushchiy otdelom
* 1965: Zaychik — assistant director
* 1965: Operation Y and Other Adventures of Shurik — The Coward (segment "Operatsiya Y")
* 1965: Road to the sea
* 1966: Byvayet i tak
* 1966: Udivitelnaya istoriya, pokhozhaya na skazki
* 1966: Podi tuda, ne znayu kuda — Narrator
* 1966: Who invented the wheel? — Uncle
* 1966: The Formula of the Rainbow — Director of the toy factory
* 1966: Kidnapping, Caucasian Style — Coward
* 1967: Seven Old Men and One Girl — Coward
* 1968: Tatyanin den — Man Offering New Chronology
* 1968: Save the drowning — Militia Precinct Chief
* 1968: An Old, Old Tale — Dobryy Bolshebnik
* 1969: The Diamond Arm — Drunk Man
* 1969: Golfstrim — Igor's Father
* 1969: In the thirteenth hour of the night — Ovinny
* 1969: Kabacjok "13 chairs" (TV Series) — pan Cypa
* 1970: Step off the roof — englishman
* 1970: Guardian — Tebenkov
* 1970: As we were looking Tishka — Petty Officer Stepanov
* 1971: Kak my iskali Tishku
* 1971: The Twelve Chairs — fitter Mechnikov
* 1971: The Shadow — doctor
* 1971: Gentlemen of Fortune — Gavrila Sheremetev (Sad Sack)
* 1971: Spring tale (TV Movie) — Tsar Berendey
* 1972: The mortal enemy — Yegor
* 1972: Tobacco Captain (TV Movie) — cook
* 1973: Incorrigible Liar — Alexei Ivanovich Tyutyurin
* 1973: The Sannikov Land — Ignaty
* 1973: Chipollino — lawer Vetch
* 1973: Have you ever loved?
* 1974: Tsarevich Prosha — «King Katorz IX»
* 1974: North Rhapsody — seller
* 1974: Honey boy — Macintosh
* 1974: My destiny (Short) — drunk man
* 1975: Car, Violin and the Dog Klyaksa — Banjo / Guitar
* 1975: The big attraction — Gankin
* 1975: It Can't Be! — Papanya nevesty
* 1975: Finist, the brave Falcon — Agafon
* 1975: Puzyrki
* 1975: Shag navstrechu — people at the buffet
* 1976: The Blue Bird — Sugar
* 1976: Shag navstrechu — Man
* 1976: Au-u! — Learning
* 1976: Shepherd Yanka — Prince Kukimor
* 1976: Merry dreams or Laughter and Tears (TV Movie) — Krivello
* 1977: Twelve Chairs (TV Mini-Series) — Bezenchuk
* 1977: The sun, the sun again
* 1977: Until the clock strikes — Grandfather / The Great Gardener
* 1977: Marinka, Yanka and the secrets of the royal castle — Prince Kukimor
* 1978: Istoriya s metranpazhem — Semyon Kaloshin
* 1980: Borrowing Matchsticks — Tahvo Kenonen, tailor
* 1980: Comedy of bygone days — Coward
* 1981: Ruki vverkh!
* 1982: Love by Request — Hapless Boyfriend-artist (voice, uncredited)
* 1982: Sorcerers (TV Movie) — cat (voice)
* 1983: The Pokrovsky Gate — Savelich (voice)
* 1985: Rivals — old man
* 1985: Dangerous for Your Life! — Alexander Chokolov
* 1986: Travel Pan Klyaksa
* 1986: I counselor outpost
* 1992: Shot in a coffin — Colonel Zakusnyak
* 1992: Gospoda Artisty — Nil Palych
* 1993: Brave guys — Maj. Vasily Griboyedov
* 1994: A Few Love Stories — Fornari
* 1994: Lord actors — Nil Palych
* 1994: Hagi-Tragger — Genrikh Yanovich

### Cartoons

* 1947: The Humpbacked Horse — the chamberlain (voice, uncredited)
* 1955: The Enchanted Boy — Rozenbaum (voice)
* 1956: The Twelve Months — Raven / Herald / Parrot / February (voice, uncredited)
* 1959: Beloved Beauty — Trukha (voice)
* 1960: The Adventures of Buratino — Giuseppe / Clown / Crow (voice)
* 1960: It Was I Who Drew the Little Man — the Confectioner / Poet (voice)
* 1961: The Key — (voice)
* 1968: Film, Film, Film (Short) — Film director (voice)
* 1976: Konyok-gorbunok — Spalnik (voice)
* 1981: Maria, Mirabela — Caterpillar King (Soviet dub voice)
* 1991: Priklyucheniya volshebnogo globusa, ili prodelki vedmy — The Little Signor (voice)
* 1992: Oy, rebyata, ta-ra-ra (voice)
* 1993: Dreamers from the Village of Ugory — Koschei the Immortal