Acting
Andréas Voutsinas
Born 1932-08-22 · Khartoum, Sudan
Andreas Voutsinas (22 August 1930 – 8 June 2010) was a Greek actor and theatre director. In the English-speaking world, he was best known for his roles in three Mel Brooks films, The Producers (1967), The Twelve Chairs (1970) and History of the World, Part I (1981). Voutsinas was born on 22 August 1930 in Khartoum, since there was a sizeable community of Greek settlers in Sudan at the time. His parents came from the island of Cephalonia, Greece. They set up a pasta factory in the Anglo-Egyptian colony, "reputedly supplying spaghetti to Italian forces" during the Fascist invasion of Abyssinia. After the collapse of the business during WWII, Voutsinas moved with his mother to Athens, Greece. His father returned 2 years later. Voutsinas studied acting and costume design at the The Old Vic Τheatre School and drama and song at the Webber Douglas Academy in London, and, in 1957, joined the Actors Studio. Voutsinas directed more than 130 performances of classical and contemporary repertoire in London, Paris, New York, Canada and Greece. He worked as an actor and director on Broadway and acted in films by Jules Dassin and Luc Besson. Voutsinas, a life member of The Actors Studio since 1957, spent many years working in summer stock theater and as an assistant to Studio co-founder Elia Kazan, before he met Jane Fonda, with whom he got involved and whom he cast in the leading part in The Fun Couple, his Broadway directorial debut in 1963. Voutsinas later followed Fonda to Hollywood where he coached her in a number of movies. He then started working as a coach for many others, including Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Following Fonda to Paris to coach her in Roger Vadim's Barbarella, he decided to found Le Theatre Des Cinquante, an acting workshop based on the principles of Lee Strasberg. Many famous French actors and actresses started attending his classes, and at the same time he successfully began directing plays for the French theatre. In 1967, Voutsinas became the original Carmen Ghia after befriending Mel Brooks's wife, Anne Bancroft. She recommended him to Brooks and said Voutsinas would be perfect for the part. Voutsinas had a role in another Brooks feature, History of the World, Part I, playing the role of "Bernaise" in the French Revolution scenes. It was not until the early 1980s that he eventually moved to his ancestral Greece, where he continued his career directing a wide range of repertoire from Tennessee Williams to Euripides, mainly for the State Theatre of Northern Greece in Thessaloniki. His productions were also staged during summer in the Athens Festival in Herodion, as well as in the Epidaurus Festival. He continued working between the two countries while he appeared in many French and Greek films, including Le Grand Bleu (1988) and Safe Sex (1999). Andreas Voutsinas taught acting at the State Theatre of Northern Greece from 2002 to 2009. After he suffered a stroke he founded his own drama school in Thessaloniki, the Higher Drama School Andreas Voutsinas. He was married to Artemis Papastrati from 1953 to 1964, they had one son Marios Voutsinas, who became an artist. ... Source: Article "Andreas Voutsinas" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Acting credits
7.4Childhood friends Jacques and Enzo share a passion for the danger of free diving. Jacques, following in the footsteps of his father, who died at sea when Jacques was a boy, harbors a remarkable ability to adjust his heart rate and breathing patterns in the water, with his vital signs more closely resembling those of dolphins than men.
The Big Blue
1988
7.1A conniving Broadway producer and his meek accountant plan to profit from charming wealthy old biddies to invest in an overbudget production, and then put on a sure-fire disaster, so nobody will ask for their money back — and what's more disastrous than a tasteless musical celebrating Adolf Hitler.
The Producers
1968
6.7An uproarious version of history that proves nothing is sacred – not even the Roman Empire, the French Revolution and the Spanish Inquisition.
History of the World: Part I
1981
6.5A satire of life in modern Greece, presented through a series of different stories about sex. There are several couples and their relation with sex in parallel stories that come together in a hilarious way.
Safe Sex
1999
6.2In 1920s Soviet Russia, a fallen aristocrat, a priest and a con artist search for a treasure of jewels hidden inside one of twelve dining chairs, lost during the revolution.
The Twelve Chairs
1970
4.7During the prohibition era, Cornelius, a bootlegger, is on the run from the American coastguards. He comes across a silent film actress, Linda, on the set of a movie and falls in love with her.
Rum Runners
1971
7.0Adèle lives in the shadow of her husband, Ferdinand, a painter. After her father's death, they leave the provinces for Paris. She refines his paintings and comforts him. Thanks to her brushstrokes, Ferdinand discovers fame and success. And love in all this? Sacrificed on the altar of creation...
Madame Sourdis
1979
5.3A crime story set in Paris about a Bonnie-and-Clyde couple -- how they got together and how they are pursued for a murder they never committed.
Thieves After Dark
1984
5.0A chance encounter in London leads A & B on a bizarre journey around Europe.
The Second Coming
1972
NRA wealthy, eccentric old man leaves his friend, a notary, a strange will. He wants to be buried with a view of the sea, gypsies playing music, and his coffin carried by four girls dressed like Moulin Rouge dancers. Otherwise, his enormous fortune will be inherited by the church for the benefit of illegitimate and extramarital children. His son, a former progressive and now a businessman, is unable to revoke the will because the church will be the plaintiff. So all the members of the family will try overnight to find a way to fulfill the terms of the will in order to get the money. But the road will not be as easy as they imagined...
Parta ola
2003
6.3Pierre used to be a top level football player but he quit. Now he is both a prestidigitator and a stool pigeon, benefiting from the protection of the chief inspector. In his dreams he is haunted by the horrors he saw (he took part in ?) during the Algerian War. Pierre lives with Marie, a young singer who performs at the same cabaret as him. Lately Marie has decided to start a career in the showbiz and Pierre is worried. Nothing alarming happens though, until a diabolical inspector, jealous of his superior, decides to manipulate Pierre. He also puts pressure on Poussin, Marie's pianist, and on Joseph, the night club's master of ceremony. What he wants is to compromise his superior and take his place. Will Pierre escape this ruthless trap?
Lovely Swine
1973
9.0Inspector Balboss, a corrupt police officer with a criminal streak, takes under his wing a young vagrant he meets by chance and sets about teaching him the tricks of the trade.
Monsieur Balboss
1975
6.0An unknown Polish writer can't publish his novels, so his ex-wife decides to help him and get some of the profit for herself. She finally finds a publisher, but there's a strange single condition that could cost the writer his life.
The Little Apocalypse
1993
6.2Melina Mercouri plays Maya, a jet-setting Greek actress who returns to her homeland to undertake the role of Medea. Searching for inspiration and clues as to how a mother could kill the children she loves, Maya discovers Brenda (Ellen Burstyn), a bible-spouting American woman serving time in an Athens prison for that very crime.
A Dream of Passion
1978
4.8To Take Possession of Maleficient Powers, Dracula must take control of a lady in a Flee Market, Paris , France. But without wasting any time, her friends take on Dracula to save her from this terrible curse of Vampirism.
Les Charlots contre Dracula
1980
6.5Documentary focusing on 25 year-old actress Jane Fonda as she and her director Andreas Voutsinas prepare a stage play called The Fun Couple for Broadway.
Jane
1962
7.9An hour-long making-of featurette which features interviews and anecdotes from the likes of Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Lee "Ulla" Meredith, assistant director Michael Hertzberg, composer John Morris, choreographer Alan Johnson, production designer Charles Rosen, casting director Alfa-Betty Olsen, among others.
The Making of 'The Producers'
2002
5.0It is a story of a normal, everyday Greek family that each member turns out to be wacko or gets wacko by the other members. The father is the stoic figure that accepts everything. The mother has a middle age crisis and takes advantage of her husbands inability. The older brother is a doctor of psychology and has everything under control (or believe so) and the younger brother does nothing with his life acclaiming that he is a filmmaker.
Poisonous Women
1993
7.0Didier is an embarrassed lover and husband when his young mistress, whom he had just left, attempts suicide and is adopted by her family while she recovers. The situation becomes very tense when everyone (husband, wife, children and mistress) goes on vacation together. Didier asks his wife for a divorce after succumbing to his mistress again, but that's not the end of the trouble.
A Little, a Lot, Passionately
1971
4.0Adolescents or young adults, Franck, Christine and the others meet, bond, leave each other. But the drama lurks.
Les Nouveaux Tricheurs
1987
8.5In the late 1960s and early 1970s British-born New Yorker and unsung hero of gay underground filmmaking Peter de Rome produced a number of explicit, painstakingly crafted Super 8 films each of which took the viewer on an immersive sexual journey. In 1973, eight of these films were brought together as The Erotic Films of Peter de Rome producing one of the finest cinematic examples of the intersection of artistry and eroticism, in the tradition of Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger.
The Erotic Films of Peter De Rome
1973
