Titos Vandis

Acting

Titos Vandis

Born 1917-11-06 · Neo Faliro, Greece

Titos Vandis (7 November 1917 – 23 February 2003) was a Greek actor. Vandis began his career on the Greek stage in the late 1930s. In 1962, he won the Best Actor award for the film Poliorkia at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Vandis left Greece when a dictatorship took power and lived in the United States for 24 years. Vandis appeared in over 250 plays before making his Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated musical On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965). Vandis was in the original Broadway cast and led the title song in Illya Darling (1967), a musical based on his film Never on Sunday (1960). The title character Illya was a carefree Greek prostitute. Newsday critic George Oppenheimer wrote, "Major credit goes to Titos Vandis for his playing of Illya's oldest client, who sings and dances as rousingly as the youngsters ..." Vandis reprised his role in a Westbury Music Fair production in 1968. Newsday critic Murry Frymer wrote that Vandis "... is delightfully authentic. In fact, he's better than that. Vandis has been in both the film Never on Sunday and the Broadway production of Illya Darling and he's not tired of it at all. His portrayal was fresh and kept bringing the affair back to the colorful gayety that bubbled through the motion picture." In 1970 Vandis joined the cast of Man of La Mancha as Sancho Panza at the Martin Beck Theater. He also played the title role in the musical Zorba at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ. Critic W. C. Flahault wrote, "His portrayal of the Greek vagabond with an eye for the girls has an earthiness which brings reality to the role." In 1972 Vandis played an uneducated coal miner on Ironside who sought Ironside's help in discovering the murderer of his daughter. He admitted "that drama was easier for him than the musical stage." Vandis said, "I suppose this part can be considered a change of pace for me, but as an actor, I find myself considering each role I play as a separate entity ... During the days of my early training, I often played old men; in fact, I relished the opportunities. Today, of course, as I grow older, I wish the positions were reversed!" That same year, he appeared in the Woody Allen film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) as Milos Stavros, an Armenian shepherd who was in love with a sheep. In The Exorcist (1973), he played the uncle of protagonist Father Damien Karras. Vandis wore a hat in one shot that obscured his face, as director William Friedkin felt that Vandis's face would be connected with his previous role as Milos. Vandis had a recurring role in the detective series Baretta (1975-1978), having appeared in four episodes, and guest-starred alongside Hulk Hogan in The A-Team episode "Body Slam" (1985-1986 season). His other TV appearances have included The Flying Nun, Trapper John, M.D., M*A*S*H, The Odd Couple, Kojak, Barney Miller, Wonder Woman, Newhart, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Description above from the Wikipedia article Titos Vandis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

The Exorcist poster
7.7

When a mysterious entity possesses a young girl, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.

The Exorcist

1973

The Betsy poster
4.8

Ruthless patriarch Loren hires racecar driver Angelo to build a more efficient vehicle against the wishes of his grandson. But things get even messier when Angelo romances two women in Loren's life -- his great-granddaughter and his grandson's mistress.

The Betsy

1978

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask poster
6.5

A collection of seven vignettes, which each address a question concerning human sexuality. From aphrodisiacs to sexual perversion to the mystery of the male orgasm, characters like a court jester, a doctor, a queen and a journalist adventure through lab experiments and game shows, all seeking answers to common questions that many would never ask.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask

1972

Young Doctors in Love poster
5.3

An 'Airplane!'-style spoof of hospital soap operas—a brilliant young trainee can't stand the sight of blood; a doctor romances the head nurse in order to get the key to the drugs cabinet; and there's a mafioso on the loose disguised as a woman.

Young Doctors in Love

1982

Fletch Lives poster
6.0

Fletch is a fish out of water in small-town Louisiana, where he's checking out a tumbledown mansion he's inherited. When a woman he flirts with turns up dead, he becomes a suspect and must find the killer and clear his name.

Fletch Lives

1989

The River poster
6.2

This films tells four different stories, all connected by the banks of a river.

The River

1960

National Lampoon's Movie Madness poster
3.4

A parody of film genres composed of three shorts, spoofing personal growth films, glossy soap operas, and police stories.

National Lampoon's Movie Madness

1982

Smile poster
6.0

It's time again for California's "Young American Miss" beauty pageant, the biggest event of the year for Big Bob Freelander and Brenda DiCarlo, who give their all to put on a successful pageant. But Brenda is having marital difficulties and Bob's son is up to some mischief. Could this year's pageant be in jeopardy?

Smile

1975

Topkapi poster
6.5

Arthur Simon Simpson is a small-time crook biding his time in Greece. One of his potential victims turns out to be a gentleman thief planning to steal the emerald-encrusted dagger of the Mehmed II from Istanbul's Topkapi Museum.

Topkapi

1964

Fiesta poster
NR

A modern-day retelling of the parable of the prodigal son.

Fiesta

1975

Stiletto poster
5.3

A rich, jet-setting playboy has a secret life: he's also a professional Mafia hitman. When he decides it's time to retire from that life, he finds that his former employers don't like the idea that someone who knows so much about them won't be under their control anymore, and decide to send their own hitmen to eliminate him.

Stiletto

1969

Genesis II poster
5.9

A scientist who has been preserved in suspended animation wakes up to find himself in a primitive society in the future.

Genesis II

1973

Oh, God! poster
6.4

When God appears to an assistant grocery manager as a good natured old man, the Almighty selects him as his messenger for the modern world.

Oh, God!

1977

Zandy's Bride poster
6.4

Zandy Allan purchases a mail-order bride, Hannah Lund. He treats her as a possession, without respect or humanity, until their shared ordeal as they struggle to survive develops in him a growing love.

Zandy's Bride

1974

Merry Kitschmas poster
7.0

On the brink of the new Millennium, on Christmas Eve, a young couple invites Santa Claus over for dinner. What are the couple's intentions?

Merry Kitschmas

2000

Never on Sunday poster
6.9

An American scholar in Greece sets about improving the local prostitute with whom he is infatuated.

Never on Sunday

1960

The San Pedro Bums poster
7.0

Pilot for the short-lived TV series centers on five rough-and-tumble guys living on a leaky boat where they try to collar a gang of waterfront toughs after a robbery of which their buddy was the victim.

The San Pedro Bums

1977

Satan's Triangle poster
5.4

The female survivor of a shipwreck and two Coast Guard helicopter pilots sent to rescue her find themselves trapped in a mysterious part of the ocean known as Satan's Triangle.

Satan's Triangle

1975

Gus poster
5.9

The California Atoms are in last place with no hope of moving up. But by switching the mule from team mascot to team member, (He can kick 100 yard field goals!) they start winning, and move up in the rankings, Hurrah! The competition isn't so happy.

Gus

1976

A Piece of the Action poster
5.8

How does retired cop Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones) get two career criminals, Manny Durrell (Sidney Poitier) and Dave Anderson (Bill Cosby), to follow the straight and narrow? Con them into helping juvenile delinquents turn over a new leaf. But how? Burke has never been able to nail the duo, but he uses what he knows of their seedy past to blackmail them into volunteering.

A Piece of the Action

1977

Astero poster
3.2

This immensely successful remake of the 1929 foustanella classic was directed by Dinos Dimopoulos and quickly established its stars (Dimitris Papamichael and the beautiful Aliki Vouyouklaki) as the Greek cinema's top box-office draws. The story itself rigidly follows the conventions of its subgenre, although because Greek filmmakers were still churning out foustanellas for decades afterward, it hardly seems more dated than the original. Once again, it tells the tale of Mitros (Titos Vandis), a wealthy herd owner with a foster daughter named Astero (Vouyouklaki) whom he marries off to another herd owner, despite the fact that she and his son Thimios (Papamichael) are desperately in love. The other herd owner dies and Astero loses her mind a bit (although she doesn't wig out quite as spectacularly as Aliki Theodoridou in the silent original), but Mitros finally comes to the right decision and allows the children to marry.

Astero

1959

Innocent Souls poster
7.0

A children's film about the adventures of a young boy, Lampros, who returns to school after an absence of many days due to an accident. Lampros has a loyal and true friend in his dog, whom he calls Lykos (Wolf), with whom he spends endless hours of games and carefree abandon.

Innocent Souls

1960

The Miracle Worker poster
6.9

The true story of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan, a gripping battle to overcome impossible obstacles and the struggle to communicate. As a young girl, Helen Keller is stricken with scarlet fever. The illness leaves her blind, mute, and deaf. Sealed off from the world, Helen cannot communicate with anyone, nor anyone with her. Often frustrated and desperate, Helen flies into uncontrollable rages and tantrums that terrify her hopeless family. The gifted teacher Annie Sullivan is summoned by the family to help the girl understand the world from which she is isolated, freeing Helen Keller from her internal prison forever. Television remake of the 1962 film which also starred Patty Duke in the role of Helen Keller.

The Miracle Worker

1979

The President's Mistress poster
6.8

A government courier is caught in a deadly cover-up after discovering that his murdered sister was not only the mistress of a U.S. president, but also a Soviet spy.

The President's Mistress

1978