Георгий Вицин

Georgy Mikhailovich Vitsin (Russian: Гео́ргий Миха́йлович Ви́цин; April 23, 1918 – October 23, 2001) - Russian actor and People's Artist of the USSR (1990). Born in St. Petersburg, then Petrograd, in 1918, 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. 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 a 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. According to an Oscar-winning film director Nikita Mikhalkov, Vitsin was "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.