Thanasis Veggos (alternatively speltThanassis and/orVengos;Greek: Θανάσης Βέγγος,Thanássis Véngos; 29 May 1927 – 3 May 2011) was aGreek actor and director born inNeo Faliro,Piraeus.[1][2][3] He performed in around 130 films, predominantly comedies in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s,[1] starring in more than 50 among them. He is considered one of the best Greek comedy actors of all time. His famous comedic catchphrase wasΚαλέ μου άνθρωπε ("My good man").[3][4][5]
Veggos was the only son of a power station employee, who had fought with theGreek Resistance inWorld 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.[6] 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 ofEPON, the youth branch of the left-wing resistance movementEAM, and so served his compulsory military service as an inmate on the notorious prison islandMakronisos from 1948 to 1950. On Makronisos he met film directorNikos Koundouros who was also exiled there.[7][8][9]
Veggos' first appearance in a film was inWindfall in Athens, produced byMichael Cacoyannis, which premiered in Athens asKiriakatiko Xsipnima on 11 January 1954.[10][11] Nikos Koundouros gave him a role inMagiki polis in 1954.[8] His first major role was inPsila ta heria Hitler ("Hands Up, Hitler"), 1962.[8] and continued many more films. For his acting inWhat did you do in the war, Thanasi? (1971), the public of Thessaloniki apotheosized him and the movie won three awards[12] at theThessaloniki International Film Festival. He often played everyman characters struggling to get by, but he has also playedanti-heroes, he has acted in pure dramas, and on stage in the comedies ofAristophanes. 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 actorHarvey Keitel in "Ulysses' Gaze". In 1997, in the role of Dikaiopoli he appeared in a live performance at the ancientEpidaurus theatre.[13] In 2000, he survived a car accident involving a collision with a train.[8] He later participated in advertisements promoting road safety.[8]
A documentary of his life, whose title translates asA Man for All Seasons, was made in 2004. He always did his own stunts including the most dangerous ones, like hanging from a rope tied to a balcony fifty feet above a pavement without anything to break his fall, walking through a glass door, or falling down a stone staircase head first. During the "Golden Sixties" of the Greek film industry he made his most popular comedy films such as the sequel ofSecret Agent 000,Papatrehas,Enas trellos Vengos and many others,[14] also withsurrealist humor, most of them by his own company Θ-Β Comedies (Θ-Β Tainies Geliou)[15][16][17][18] which he founded in 1964.
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.[20]
Veggos also played roles in televisual series in the 1990s and 2000s; these were mainly roles of an elder wise person, who gives his advice to the younger ones.
^Vasilopoulos, Christos (2017-09-14)."Η Μηχανή του Χρόνου – Θανάσης Βέγγος – Α΄ Μέρος" [Greece's state broadcaster ERT's documentary program Mixani tou Chronou – Thanasis Veggos – Part A].Mηχανή του Χρόνου (video 44min:42sec) (in Greek). Athens.ERT.Archived from the original on 2021-12-09 – via YouTube.
^Vasilopoulos, Christos (2017-09-19)."Η Μηχανή του Χρόνου – Θανάσης Βέγγος – B΄ Μέρος" [Greece's state broadcaster ERT's documentary program Mixani tou Chronou – Thanasis Veggos – Part B].Mηχανή του Χρόνου (video 50min:20sec) (in Greek). Αθήνα.ERT.Archived from the original on 2021-12-09 – via YouTube.
