Lasse Erik Pöysti (; 24 January 1927 – 5 April 2019)Lasse Pöysti at The Finnish National Filmography was a Finnish actor, director, theatre manager and writer. He is best known internationally for voicing Moomintroll in the 1969 television series based on Tove Jansson's Moomins, and in Finland as the child star Olli Suominen in the Suominen family film series of the 1940s. He served as manager of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm from 1981 to 1985, and received the Finnish Jussi Award seven times, including a lifetime achievement award in 2010.
Biography Early life and career Pöysti grew up in a bilingual family in Sortavala in Finnish Karelia, with a Finnish-speaking father, the department head Eino Tauno Pöysti, and a Swedish-speaking mother, Signe Maria Köhler. During the Winter War the family was evacuated and eventually settled in Helsinki.
As a child he was convinced he would one day become a famous film star. In the summer of 1940 he responded to a newspaper advertisement in which the film company Suomen Filmiteollisuus was looking for young actors. Receiving no reply, he went directly to the company's managing director Toivo Särkkä and performed his own version of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He was given an immediate screen test and was selected from among 250 applicants for the role of Olli Suominen in the Suominen family film series., Ilta-Sanomat, 31 January 2010 (in Finnish). Retrieved 17 November 2010Banham, Martin (ed.) 1995. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge University Press. P. 371.
The first of the Suominen family films was Suomisen perhe (1941), when Pöysti was 14 years old. Pöysti matriculated in 1945 at the Helsinki Normal Lyceum. After matriculating, he studied at the University of Helsinki. He was an actor at the Finnish National Theatre from 1944 to 1952, where he received praise for his roles in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1949) and Max Frisch's The Chinese Wall (1949). In 1949 he also directed his first production, a Finnish-language version of Federico García Lorca's The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife, which he had translated himself and which was well received by critics. He was an actor at the Intimiteatteri from 1952 to 1955.
Theatre career and breakthrough In 1955 Pöysti joined the Lilla Teatern in Helsinki, where he performed in Swedish alongside actress Birgitta Ulfsson, whom he had married in 1952. The theatre's season was typically divided in two: the autumn programme challenged audiences with more demanding repertoire, while the spring season featured revues with political satire and topical material written by the theatre's resident author Benedict Zilliacus. Pöysti also had his own television programme, Lasse Pöysti Show.
Pöysti had already served as director and announcer for Finland's first public television broadcast in 1955, and in 1963 he joined the TV theatre as an actor. His most celebrated television role of this period was the title role in August Strindberg's Gustav III, a performance that has been highlighted as the defining element each time the recording has been rebroadcast.Peter von Bagh: Pöysti, Lasse (yle.fi) Kustaa III. Yle Elävä arkisto (yle.fi) He also had the leading role in Strindberg's Erik XIV.
The international breakthrough came when Lilla Teatern staged Tove Jansson's Moomins in the early 1960s, with Pöysti as Moomintroll. The production toured to Stockholm, where it introduced Finnish-Swedish theatre to Swedish audiences. It has been said that Finnish-Swedish, which to Swedish ears could sound archaic and somewhat comic, began to be appreciated through the Moomins. In the late 1960s the theatre's actors also made a television series with the characters.
In 1967 Pöysti and Ulfsson took over the ownership and management of Lilla Teatern. Under their leadership the theatre developed a more openly political profile, staging works such as Peter Weiss's Song of the Lusitanian Bogey and holding post-performance discussions with audiences. From 1971 to 1974 Pöysti was also an Artist Professor. In 1974 the theatre was sold to Asko Sarkola, and Pöysti became manager of the Tampere Workers' Theatre, a post he held until 1981.
In 1981 Pöysti moved to Stockholm to lead the Royal Dramatic Theatre, one of the largest stages in the Nordic countries. His tenure was marked by recurring disputes over actors' leave of absence, the proportion of children's theatre in the repertoire, and the general direction of programming. His original plan for a sustained exploration of the Age of Enlightenment never gained traction. He was dismissed midway through his second term in 1985 due to deteriorating relations with the company.
Later years After leaving the Royal Dramatic Theatre Pöysti returned to full-time acting after nearly twenty years in managerial roles. Throughout his career he had been known primarily as a comedian, particularly popular in military farce films during the 1950s. Among his most acclaimed later film roles were the title role in Ralf Långbacka's adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti (1979) and the lead in Matti Kassila's adaptation of F. E. Sillanpää's The Glory and Misery of Human Life (1988), in which he played a self-portrait of a writer whose creativity has dried up. He also read bedtime stories in the Finnish children's television programme Pikku Kakkonen from 1977, becoming familiar to a whole generation of Finnish children.Radio Nova
In his later career Pöysti continued to appear regularly in film and television. He fulfilled an ambition by moving to Paris in the early 1990s, before eventually settling in Lauttasaari, Helsinki. In addition to his stage and screen career, Pöysti wrote several books including a memoir trilogy, and translated plays into Finnish by authors including Federico García Lorca, Georges Feydeau and Jacques Deval.Sibelius Piano Quintets and Melodramas. Booklet, page 8. BIS-CD-1412 2007, BIS Records AB, Åkersberga. He received the Finnish Jussi Award seven times, including a lifetime achievement award in 2010. He was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal in 1969.
Pöysti died in Helsinki in April 2019, aged 92. His and Ulffson's son Erik Pöysti and their granddaughter Alma Pöysti are both actors in Helsinki.
Selected filmography
1941: Suomisen perhe - Olli Suominen 1941: Täysosuma - Skier (uncredited) 1941: Onnellinen ministeri - Errand Boy (uncredited) 1942: Suomisen Ollin tempaus - Olli Suominen 1943: Suomisen taiteilijat - Olli Suominen 1944: Suomisen Olli rakastuu - Olli Suominen 1945: Suomisen Olli yllättää - Olli Suominen 1948: Haaviston Leeni - (uncredited) 1948: Kilroy sen teki - Pete 1948: Hormoonit valloillaan - Pena 1949: Ruma Elsa - Usko Aamunen 1949: Katupeilin takana - Arvid 1949: Sinut minä tahdon - Seppo Vesa 1949: Professori Masa - Pentti Simola 1950: Isäpappa ja keltanokka - Aimo Tammela 1950: Rakkaus on nopeampi Piiroisen pässiäkin - Heikki Piiparinen 1951: Vain laulajapoikia - Dr. Syrjä 1951: Radio tekee murron - Radio reporter 1951: The General's Fiancée - Korpraali Jukka Oksapää 1951: A Night in Rio - Lasse 1951: Tukkijoella - Pölhö-Kustaa 1951: Vihaan sinua - rakas - Tauno Karnala 1952: Kaikkien naisten monni - Alokas Nieminen 1953: Two Funny Guys - Säveltäjä Jussi Mäki 1953: The Millionaire Recruit - Vihuri 1954: Kovanaama - Reporter Esko Pekuri 1954: Laivaston monnit maissa - Maisteri Segerstråhle 1954: Putkinotko - Malakias 1955: Näkemiin Helena - Lennu 1955: Sankarialokas - Alokas Esko Sirola / legioonal. T. Smith / matr T. MacDonald 1955: Miss Eurooppaa metsästämässä - Antero W. Lintunen 1955: Villi Pohjola - Kapakkapianisti 1957: Vääpelin kauhu - Jaska 1957: Syntipukki - Frans Koikkalainen 1958: Asessorin naishuolet - Veikko Pajukivi 1958: Sotapojan heilat - Alokas Esko Puustinen 1959: Taas tapaamme Suomisen perheen - Olli Suominen 1960: Justus järjestää kaiken - Justus 1964: Bröllopsbesvär - Peddler 1966: Syskonbädd 1782 - Guest at the tavern 1968: Punahilkka - Matti - airline pilot 1969: Mumintrollet (TV Series) - Moomintroll 1976: Pyhä perhe - Paavo Mäkinen 1977: Pikku Kakkonen (TV Series) - Himself - the host 1978: The Adventures of Picasso - Sirkka's Father (uncredited) 1979: Linus eller Tegelhusets hemlighet - Antique Dealer 1979: Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti - Johannes Puntila 1980: Barna från Blåsjöfjället - Lasso-Lassi 1980: Det blir jul på Möllegården (TV Series) - Pixie 1982: Flight of the Eagle - Photographer 1984: The Clan – Tale of the Frogs - Siilipää 1984: Dirty Story - Private detective 1986: Flucht in den Norden 1986: Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan - The Stablemaster 1986: På liv och död - Sångare i tunnelbanan 1986: Näkemiin, hyvästi - Lauri Valve, Tuulan isä 1987: Lain ulkopuolella - Chairman of the Court 1988: The Glory and Misery of Human Life - Martti Hongisto 1989: Dårfinkar och dönickar (TV Mini-Series) - Morfar 1989: Tjurens år (TV Movie) - Onkel Jegor 1992: Mestari - Kalevi Suomalainen 1993: Macklean (TV Series) - Carl August Ehrensvärd 1993: Rosenbaum (TV Series) - Erik 'Lunkan' Lundkvist 1995: Vita lögner - Lindqvist 1995: Petri tårar - The Cripple 1999: Lapin kullan kimallus - Konrad Planting 2008: Thomas - Thomas
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