Thanasis Veggos
Acting
Biography
Thanasis Veggos (29 May 1926 – 3 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, starring in more than 50 among them. He is considered one of the best Greek comedy actors of all time. His famous comedic catchphrase was "Καλέ µου άνθρωπε" ("My good man"). Veggos' first appearance in a film was in Windfall in Athens, produced by Mihalis Kakogiannis, which premiered in Athens as Kiriakatiko Xsipnima on 11 January 1954. Nikos Koundouros gave him a role in Magiki polis in 1955. His first major role was in Psila ta heria Hitler ("Hands Up, Hitler"), 1962 and continued many more films. For his acting in What did you do in the war, Thanasi? (1971), the public of Thessaloniki °apotheosized° him and the movie won three awards 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 theater. In 2000, he survived a car accident involving a collision with a train. He later participated in advertisements promoting road safety. A documentary of his life, whose title translates as A 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 of Secret Agent 000, Papatrehas, Enas trellos Vengos and many others, also with surrealist humor, most of them by his own company Θ-Β Comedies (Θ-Β Tainies Geliou) which founded in 1964. In 2008, Veggos was appointed Commander of the Order of the Phoenix by the President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias. On 3 May 2011, he died at 7:10 a.m. He had been hospitalized at the Red Cross hospital, in Athens, since 18 December 2010. He is survived by his wife Asimina and two sons. He will always be remembered in the more than 120 films and more recent documentaries that he 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.
Known For
Young Alexis Vranas returns to Athens form studying abroad and starts working for a major company. There, he will meet and fall in love with a secretary, Varvara Papadopoulos.
The Papadopoulou Family
A romantic drama filmed mostly in Corfu and the television reappearance after many years of the much-loved Thanasis Vengou. Athena lives with her capricious sister in a mansion in Corfu. A "sailor" moves into the house next door, who, after spending all his years at sea, inherited this house in Corfu from his aunt. A tender friendship develops between them, which will however be shaken when Athena's stepdaughter falls in love with the "sailor's" son, who is a pilot, in Paris. Athena sounds the alarm because she learns that the pilot is a womanizer with two failed marriages to his credit and also because she does not want to ruin her daughter's engagement to Lelos, the son of a very wealthy businessman with hotels in Corfu.
About Winds and Waters
An exiled filmmaker finally returns to his home country where former mysteries and afflictions of his early life come back to haunt him once more.
Ulysses' Gaze
Thanasis Vengos (police officer Thanasis Papathanasis), Stamatis Tzelepis (Stamatis Tritsimpidas), Vangelis Traiforos (Vangelis Batarias), Marina Roma (Litsa Tsakalou), Giorgos Stavropoulos (I) (Charilaos Stypas), Elena Tsatsaroni (Toula Benou), Orfeas Zachos (Commander Solon Souleles (1990-1991)), Giorgos Moutsios (Commander Evgenios Kalamportzos (1991-1992)), Mary Farmaki (Deputy Commander Koralia Santamouri (1991-1992)), Stefanos Delis, Giota Koutsoudaki (Boula Savoura, Klats TV journalist), Manos Pantelidis (Pipis Vlachospinopoulos, cameraman Klats TV), Dimitris Pantazis (Tsekouras), Kostas Politis (Stouraitis)
Police Officer Thanasis Papathanasis
An American scholar in Greece sets about improving the local prostitute with whom he is infatuated.
Never on Sunday
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Έχω ένα μυστικό...
Vengos studies in a secret agents' academy, dreaming of becoming a great spy like 007. Unfortunately, he can't do anything right, so he wreaks havoc during his final exams.
Help! Vengos Visible Agent '000'
Ilias dresses himself in a police uniform as part of a complex burglary plot. Unfortunately for him, the impostor officer is called to assist in the investigation of a real crime. The other officers involved in this case treat him as a colleague, and he is forced to play along in hopes that his cover is not blown.
The Policeman of the 16th Precinct
Polydoros Lagos is a janitor in an ordinary Athens' block in the 1960s who's struggling to serve as many of the building's residents as possible in order to save some money to help his six sisters (and his aunt) get married, since this is the only way he can finally get married too.
Papatrechas
Antonis Tsilivikis, a stingy construction contractor, neglects his home and wife Eleni and forces her to lie to her rich uncle in America, Peter, in order to continue to send a monthly financial aid. But when the uncle notices that he comes to Greece, and in order not to reveal the truth, Antonis disguises himself as a retired named Beizanis, who supposedly rents a room at their home...
I'll Make You Queen
Alexis is an explosive personality, passionate about life, humanity, nature, love and beauty. That is until the breakneck rhythm, intensity, stress and convolutions of career and economic success shatter him, alienating him from everyone and everything he loves: even his children and his soul mate Maria. Alexis is jolted back to reality when the unbridled greed of the multinational conglomerate his company is involved in causes an unprecedented ecological catastrophe costing many human lives. The multinational's Golden Boy suddenly realizes that he is nothing more than a cog in the machine he had fought so passionately against in his youth. He is determined to rediscover himself, to reclaim his soul, to rebuild the dream with Maria - but he is completely trapped. He is caught in a web of intrigue that tightens like a vice driving him to an inevitably lethal conflict with the conglomerate.
The Flight of the Swan
On New Year’s Eve, a timid bank clerk is mistaken for a notorious criminal mastermind who rules the streets of Athens. Embracing his mistaken identity comes with a price though, as his unwitting white lie begins to unravel.
The Ogre of Athens
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Paraskinio
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Βεγγαλικά
A wild tale of mistaken identity set during the Nazi occupation of Greece and starring the great Thanasis Vengos. Thanasis is called upon, during the Occupation, to testify at the trial of a tavern owner accused of serving cat meat to his customers. He too is accused of perjury and imprisoned with some resistance fighters. The resistance fighters escape, but Thanasis remains in his cell. He is accused of being Ivan, the notorious ringleader of certain revolutionaries.
What Did You Do in the War, Thanassi?
A group of resistance fighters during the Occupation, collaborates with a lieutenant who comes to Greece from the headquarters of the Middle East, aiming to blow up a German ship.
The Dawn of Triumph
Charilaos Maraziotis owns a store and owes so much money both to his lenders and to the state, that he is in danger of going to jail. He decides to pretend to be a psychopath and is sent to an asylum. His lenders, upon hearing the news about his mental health, change their attitude towards him and release him from his debts.
Eftyhos... trellathika!
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Έρωτας όπως έρημος
Thanasis Vengos plays a poor young man that comes to Athens looking for a job. We watch as he tries many different jobs; druggist, photographer, even wrestling referee. The result is always hilarious and explosive!
Jack of All Trades, Master of None
Madalena is a tough seventeen-year-old who is forced to take on her father's ferry business after he dies. She has her many brothers and sisters to support, and there is no one else to do the job. So she rallies her defenses and sets out to give her rival in the ferry business a run for his money. But at the same time, the rival's handsome son is starting to look better and better. Madalena refuses to acknowledge her feelings for him -- though how long she can sustain that denial is the question.