Spede Pasanen
| Spede Pasanen | |
|---|---|
Spede Pasanen, 1965.
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| Born |
Pertti Olavi Pasanen 10 April 1930 Kuopio, Finland |
| Died | 7 September 2001 (aged 71) Kirkkonummi, Finland |
| Occupation | film director and producer, comedian, inventor |
Pertti Olavi "Spede" Pasanen (10 April 1930 – 7 September 2001) was a Finnish film director and producer, comedian, humorist, inventor, TV personality and practitioner of gags.
During his career he directed, wrote, produced or acted in about 50 movies and participated in numerous TV productions, including the comedy Spede Show and the game-show Speden Spelit. Much of his more commercial work was in collaboration with Vesa-Matti Loiri (whose most popular character created by Pasanen was Uuno Turhapuro; first in TV sketches and then in a long-lasting series of motion pictures) and Simo Salminen. Pasanen's films and TV shows, often made fast and inexpensively in a conveyor-belt mode, usually didn't gain much recognition from the critics but were extremely popular among Finnish audiences from the 1960s onwards.
He was the owner of his own film production company, Filmituotanto Spede Pasanen Ky. He is noted as the main influence of many who make an attempt to break into the Finnish comedy scene. Spede also had a long, strained relationship with Suomen elokuvasäätiö, a government-financed film-funding organisation which continuously refused to fund his movies.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s Spede was a noted presence as a radio comedian. He applied to work at Yleisradio twice in 1956 and again in 1959 as an entertainment provider (ajanvietetoimittaja) and was hired on his second try. Spede's most popular program was Ruljanssiriihi which combined sketch-comedy and musical performances. The program eventually developed into the program Hupiklubi. Spede and actor Leo Jokela also created the break-out character G. Pula-Aho (voiced by Jokela), a smart-talking, Helsinki slang using parrot who would insult Spede on Ruljanssiriihi.
Spede's other programs included Tervahöyry Hyrskynmyrskyn suvisilla laineilla, Hyvää iltaa – tulkaa mukaan and Kesäterässä.
After playing several supporting roles throughout the 1950s Spede made his first starring appearance in 1964's X-Paroni which he wrote and co-directed with his on-screen co-star Jaakko Pakkasvirta. The movie's success led to the creation of Milli Pilleri which also introduced moviegoers to Simo Salminen who became a fixture of Spede's acting troupe, often playing the side-kick to Spede's own characters. It was also the first movie Spede co-directed with Jukka Virtanen and Ere Kokkonen who would alternate directing Spede's future motion pictures, while Spede focused more on writing and producing. Spede had to finance most of his films during this period due to his poor relations with the Finnish Film Foundation.
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