Θανάσης Βέγγος: Жизнь и творчество греческого актера и режиссера

Greek actor and director

Thanasis Veggos (alternatively spelt Thanassis and/or Vengos; Greek: Θανάσης Βέγγος, Thanássis Véngos; 29 May 19273 May 2011) was a Greek actor and director born in Neo Faliro, Piraeus. He performed in around 130 films, predominantly comedies in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s,

Veggos was the only son of a power station employee, who had fought with the Greek Resistance in World War II. Vassilis Veggos played an important part in the defense of the Piraeus power station when the Germans attempted to destroy it before departing in 1944, but precisely because of this was dismissed from his job in the post war purge of leftists. His real surname was "Βέγκος" and, as he had said, he wrote it with ''γγ'' because it looked better in the eyes. Veggos himself was a member of EPON, the youth branch of the left wing resistance movement EAM, and so served his compulsory military service as an inmate on the notorious prison island Makronisos from 1948 to 1950. On Makronisos he met film director Nikos Koundouros who was also exiled there.

Veggos' first appearance in a film was in Windfall in Athens, produced by Michael Cacoyannis, which premiered in Athens as Kiriakatiko Xsipnima on 11 January 1954. Nikos Koundouros gave him a role in Magiki polis in 1954. His first major role was in Psila ta heria Hitler ("Hands Up, Hitler"), 1962. at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. He often played everyman characters struggling to get by, but he has also played anti heroes, he has acted in pure dramas, and on stage in the comedies of Aristophanes. His characters were often self named "Thanasis". He often worked with directors Panos Glykofridis and Giorgos Lazaridis. In 1995, Theo Angelopoulos cast Veggos and American actor Harvey Keitel in "Ulysses' Gaze". In 1997, in the role of Dikaiopoli he appeared in a live performance at the ancient Epidaurus theatre. In 2000, he survived a car accident involving a collision with a train. also with surrealist humor, most of them by his own company Θ Β Comedies (Θ Β Tainies Geliou) which he founded in 1964. In 2008, Veggos was appointed Commander of the Order of the Phoenix by the President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias.

Thanasis Veggos was married to Asimina and they had two sons. He will always be remembered in more than 120 films and documentaries that he has starred in. The phrase "τρέχει σαν το Βέγγο" (English translation: "runs like Veggos") has been adopted into common usage in the Greek language since nobody has run more or faster than Veggos in his many slapstick comedies.