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Veggos was born on May 29, 1926 .Though he made dozens of films that had success among the greek community , he\u00a0went through several financial difficulties in his professional career.<\/p>\nThanasis Veggos was one of the best comedians of the greek cinema of the 60\u2019s and 80\u2019s . He continued his appearance on the theatre and the movies until the new millennium.<\/p>\n
Veggos was born on May 29, 1926 .Though he made dozens of films that had success among the greek community , he\u00a0went through several financial difficulties in his professional career.<\/p>\n
His father was his personal hero, and he tries in every way to do what he knows best: to show him his love.<\/p>\n
In a 2009 interview, actor Kostas Kakavas<\/strong> described the deep affection beloved Thanasis<\/strong> had for his father: Very few people know that Vasilis Veggos<\/strong> briefly appeared in the first film his son played in, \u201cMagic City\u201d<\/em>, during a scene where the poor neighborhood collects money to save young Kosmas\u2019<\/strong> (Giorgos Foundas) truck from the hands of a black marketeer (Stefanos Stratigos).<\/p>\n Young Thanasis grew up in poverty, working from a young age doing odd jobs and in leather-processing workshops. During the Occupation, he joined EPON<\/strong>, and in March 1949, he was forced to serve his military service on Makronisos<\/strong>as an \u201cundesirable,\u201d where he developed his well-known obsession with cleanliness.<\/p>\n The painter and set designer Tassos Zografos<\/strong> writes in his biography:<\/p>\n \u201cHe was nervous, restless, anxious about everything. But he was also patient and helpful. The least of his fears was Makronisos. He was far more afraid of dust\u2014not germs. He\u2019d slice an onion into his pasta and eat whatever was left in someone else\u2019s mess tin without disgust. But he couldn\u2019t tolerate dust. Or disorder. We happened to sleep in the same tent. During the summer, it was unbearably hot, and we would lift the tent flaps to let in some air. But with the air came dust. Thanasis couldn\u2019t stand it. As soon as we dozed off, he\u2019d go and close them again.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Veggos was just like he is now\u2014obsessive about cleanliness. We barely had water to drink, and he was busy brushing off lint from the inside of his pockets. Pristine pockets, obviously, since we had nothing to put in them. When Thanasis arrived, Giannis Goumas told me that a kid from his neighborhood had come, a real character. He added that Thanasis wanted to become an actor, and that we should give him some of our bread, since he was always hungry. So we\u2019d give him whatever was left from our dry rations. And Veggos, just like now, was tireless, running around the island like a cross-country champion. He didn\u2019t even smoke, unlike most of us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Everything changed for the well-meaning Thanasis when Nikos Koundouros<\/strong> entered his life\u2014or rather, when Thanasis entered Koundouros\u2019 life, to do\u2014what else?\u2014help him.<\/p>\n The famous director recalls their first meeting:<\/p>\n \u201cI had gone to the top of a mountain, with the administration\u2019s blessing, to set up my tent and my life. As I sat there wondering how to start, all alone with a single tent thrown on the ground, a hatchet, and some stakes, I saw a strange figure approaching\u2014wrapped in one of those filthy, torn overcoats they gave us. He came carrying planks from crates and a hammer. He built something\u2014a sort of platform with the planks\u2014and then he suddenly said: When Koundouros<\/strong>, along with Tassos Zografos, took on the task of building a theater on the island of suffering, he asked the authorities to give him \u201cthat half-crazy soldier.\u201d They began constructing it together, with Veggos taking on every task until he finally stepped onto the stage for the first time\u2014earning a round of applause and the full acceptance of the entire battalion.<\/p>\n His first battle with an audience<\/strong> had been won\u2014and would follow him throughout his life.<\/p>\n In one of his very few interviews<\/strong>, published in the magazine “os3”<\/em>, Veggos spoke about that beginning:<\/p>\n \u201cI remember, when I was on Makronisos in \u201949, in the performances organized by Nikos Koundouros at the little theater in the Second Battalion. He\u2019d give me the mic, and I\u2019d just say whatever came to mind. I\u2019d do impressions, parody commercials for women\u2019s creams\u2014anything. Everyone laughed. I kept wondering\u2014how on earth am I funny? In truth, Thanasis Veggos didn\u2019t just take away theater from Makronisos<\/strong>\u2014but he never spoke of the rest. To understand how the \u201cgood man\u201d felt about that place of torment, we must turn to an account by his friend, director Dinos Katsouridis<\/strong>:<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t do anything to me on Makronisos, compared to what they did to others. I\u2019m not talking about the threats, the beatings, the hunger, the humiliation, the torture.
“You can\u2019t imagine how tender and sensitive he is! Just think\u2014he once told me: ‘Kosta, I \u00a0saved money and never picked up smoking so I could buy cigarettes for my father, who was poor. And now that I\u2019ve finally made some money, he\u2019s no longer alive to enjoy a better life. I didn\u2019t take him as many cigarettes as I should have.'”<\/em><\/p>\n\n
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It was there that he had his first audition<\/strong>, from the head of the island\u2019s makeshift theater\u2014but he didn\u2019t make the cut…<\/p>\n\n
\u2018Comrade\u2019\u2014a blessed word that has since become a stigma\u2014\u2018Comrade, you’re going to die,\u2019 he said. \u2018It gets cold at night. Put your blanket over the planks.\u2019
I said, \u2018Why do you care if I die? You\u2019ll die too.\u2019
He didn\u2019t laugh. He didn\u2019t not laugh either. He just took the tattered tent and started setting it up between the stakes. I watched him, thinking: this guy is either crazy or a saint. Then again, it\u2019s all the same\u2014crazy or saint.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
That\u2019s where I first saw real theater. I saw Katrakis and other great actors perform. Koundouros had spotted something in me and believed I could act, so he had me doing all sorts of things\u2014more like a clown, really.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It\u2019s like asking a saint to talk about his miracles. The only thing he ever repeated, with his legendary humility, was that he was never a resistance fighter<\/strong> and had ended up there by mistake.<\/p>\n\n
I\u2019m talking about the shame<\/strong>. For those who couldn\u2019t take it. Who later turned against their own comrades.
That\u2014no one<\/strong> can stomach.
It\u2019s the bankruptcy of humanity\u2014both of the one who conceives it in his diseased mind and of the one forced to accept it.
Even the Middle Ages wouldn\u2019t dare.
But they<\/strong> did.
And they even had the nerve\u2014and it was someone intellectual, like Panagiotis Kanellopoulos<\/strong>, no less\u2014to say that Makronisos was the \u2018new Parthenon of Greece<\/strong>.\u2019
Shame on them!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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