 
Choose another writer in this calendar:
by name: by birthday from the calendar.
TimeSearch This is an archive of a dead website. The original website was published by Petri Liukkonen under Creative Commons BY-ND-NC 1.0 Finland and reproduced here under those terms for non-commercial use. All pages are unmodified as they originally appeared; some links and images may no longer function. A .zip of the website is also available. |
Pertti Pasanen (1930-2001) | |
|
Film and television producer, director, comedian, scriptwriter, and inventor, whose Uuno Turhapuro (Numbskull Emptybrook) films were highly popular in Finland from the 1970s to the late 1990s. As a comedian Pertti (Spede) Pasanen had Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope as his models. Pasanen made nearly 40 movies, which generally were scorned by critics. The most successful was Uuno Turhapuro armeijan leivissä (1984). "The Uuno Turhapuro figure, guzzling beer and lolling on his couch like an ape, developed into a sort of prototypical Finnish slob and icon of slothfulness who has come apart at the seams in pace of the blighting of the country." (Peter von Bagh in Drifting Shadows, 2000) Pertti Pasanen was born in Kuopio, the son of Kusti Pasanen, a district superintendent at Ahlstöm Oy, and Helmi Pasanen, a typits. At the lycée of Kuopio Pasanen was one of the best athletes at his class. In the late 1940s he played ice hockey with Kuopion Eräveikot. Later in life he was ranked as eight best squash player in Finland. Pasanen also wrote sketches for evening entertainment arranged by the students' union. During summer vacations he worked as a reporter for the newspaper Savon Sanomat. However, Pasanen did not plan to become a journalist but make a career in movies. He spent much time in cinema theaters, learning his wisecrack style from Red Skelton, Danny Kaye, and Bob Hope – he even looked like Bob Hope with a beard, and they both shared a passion for golf. Accroding to one source, Pasanen's famous nickname, "Spede", which he started to use already in Kuopio, was invented by his girlfriend. It is also possible that the name derived from his ice hockey career: was called Speed and the name then changed into Spede. Pasanen graduated from a secondary school in Iisalmi, where he moved due to constant conflicts with autocratic teachers. After serving in the army, Pasanen entered the University of Helsinki in 1953. Pasanen studied political science without much enthusiasm – other activities interested him more. For the student magazine Susj he created advertisements, which sometimes tested the sense of humor of the sponsors. In one cartoon, made for Amer-Tupakka Oy, a tobacco company, he drew a bad looking type, who was smoking some 20 cigarettes at the same time. Gradually the radio work started to take more and more his time. In 1951 Pasanen had won an award with his radio program in a cultural competition arranged by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE). He worked occasionally for YLE as sound man, made some 30 programs, wrote a radio play "Kanarialintu", and in 1956 he applied for a position at YLE's entertainment department, without success. Pasanen's film career started in bit parts. Fennada-Filmi, run by Mikko Mäkelä, employded Spede from the mid-1950s. He also had small roles in popular Pekka Puupää films, produced by Suomen Filmiteollisuus. In Tyttö lähtee kasarmiin (1956), a military comedy, Pasanen had his first voice role. From 1959 to 1964 Pasanen worked on radio as a successor of Niilo Tarvajärvi. There he wrote sketches about a nihilistic parrot, G. Pula-aho, played by Leo Jokela. Pula-Aho spoke the 'Stadi' slang, the everyday language Helsinki. "Mä tutustuin heti kanalan tuotantotilastoon ja huomasin et se kana oli vielä kanalan kovin munimaan. Kolme munaa päivässä ja risat sanoo järki. Kato heti jysähti aivoissa et siinäpä vasta olis ämmää Pula-aholle. Työteliäs tyttö, olis niinku vanhuus turvattu meinaan. Senku istus vaan kylminä talvi-iltoina himassa takkatulen ääressä ja vetäs munakasta naamaansa ku rappari, kattos vaa ettei tapeetille roisku sano. " (in Papukaija G. Pula-Aho, 1964) Pasanen's first own program was "Aamutuimaan" (in the morning), full of unconventional humor. Some of the radio listeners hated in, some loved. He continued with "Hupiklubi", "Ruljanssiriihi", and other shows, and surprised people with unexpected telephone calls. Spede's ideas caused much worries to his superior, Antero Alpola, and the program director Jussi Koskiluoma. Jukka Virtanen, a pioneer in the Finnish television entertainment, has later told that in private life Pasanen was very decent. He drank his first bear at the age of 30 in Germany while on tour, dancing in the role of Don Quixote at the Finnish National Opera ballet. For a short time Pasanen dated with Arja Laine, who then married the actor Tommi Rinne. In 1965 Pasanen married Pirjo Vainimäki; they later separated. Pasanen's long-time companion was Riitta Väisänen, miss Europe from 1976. Pasanen did everything in his power to hide their relationship from the press. Väisänen was the speaker of the TV quiz show "Kymppitonni", which started to run in the mid-1980s. It was produced by Pasanen's own company. The affair ended in 1993, but they remained friends. Pasanen's later relationship with Maria Drockila, a young beauty queen, led to some head lines. In 1997 she was barely twenty when she became the managing director of Spede-Tuotanto Oy. In the film Hopeaa rajan takaa (1963) Pasanen played a bohemian student, Toivo Paukku, who crosses with his two friends the border between Finland and Soviet Union to dig up family silvers from Karelia. The director Mikko Niskanen later praised Pasanen's scrupulous attitude towards acting. Niskanen wanted to make another movie with Pasanen, but Toivo Paukku remained Pasanen's last serious role. In the early 1970s Niskanen planned to produce with Filmituotanto Spede Pasanen Hautakivet huipulle, based on Ilmari Eskola's novel Tikapuut huipulle (1960). The film was never realized. In 1964 Pasanen produced with Risto Jarva's Filminor one of his best films, X-Paroni, where he played a double role as Baron Wilhelm von Tandem, a heir to a large fortune, and his double Kalle, a country boy and inventor. X-Paroni did sound business – it was the No. 1 movie of that year. Pähkähullu Suomi (1967) was produced by his own company, Filmituotanto Spede Pasanen. For television he produced such comedy series as "Spedevisio", "Speden saluuna", "50 pientä minuuttia", "Uuno Turhapuro" and "Speden spelit." In the 1980s Pasanen sold his films to MTV, not to YLE. Pasanen loved western movies, he knew all the clinches of the genre, and made some western comedies himself. Speedy Gonzales – noin 7 veljeksen poika (1970) had such characters as Bat Masterson, Hoss, referring to to the TV series Bonanza, and Manolito, also referring a TV series, High Chaparal. Spede played a double role as Speedy Gonzales and Mooses Gonzales and sang with Four Cats one of the film's songs, "Haaskalinnut saalistaa", a parody of Enrico Morricone. In music sketches outside films Pasanen's work often showed the influence of Spike Jones. Hirttämättömät (1971), shot in a sand pit near Porvoo, continued the adventures of Speedy Gonzales. Simo Salminen was Tonto and Vesa-Matti Loiri played Lone Ranger. Markku Tuuli in the TV magazine Katso considered the film the last nail on the coffin in Spede's cinematic career. However, Hirttämättömät was the most popular movie of the year. SPEEDY: Kuules nyt. Se on monta kertaa tämä pyssyn kahvapuoli vaarallisempi kuin tämä etupuoli, etenkin jos on huono ampuja niin kiun sinä... Pannanpas nyt tämä pikku pysseli tämmöiseen pikku pakettiin... näin... ja sitten vähän lakka saumoihin... noin... ja sitten panet tämän paketin laatikkoon ja avaat vasta jouluna. Sillä tavalla elät ainakin jouluun saakka. (from Speedy Gonzales - noin 7 veljeksen poika) Part of Pasanen's success was his team: Simo Salminen, usually the dull straight guy, Vesa-Matti Loiri, a versatile actor, composer Jaakko Salo, and the writer-directors Jukka Virtanen and Ere Kokkonen. In 1966 Pasanen and Salminen wrote the lyrics for Salminen most famous song, 'Protestilaulu,' which satirized leftist protest songs popular at the time. It was followed by 'Keltainen jäänsärkijä', adapted from the Beatles hit 'Yellow Submarine'. In his producer's role Pasanen actively participated in creating ideas for films. The last film, in which Pasanen played the central role, the toy manufacturer Jim King, was Leikkikalugangsteri (1969). Pohjan tähteet, produced in the same year, was already created around Vesa-Matti Loiri. For a period in the 1960s, Loiri shared a bachelor's apartment with Kokkonen. Pasanen and Loiri first met at the restaurant Seurahuone in 1967. Pasanen had been turned down for his application for the Union of Finnish Actors, which led them in discussion about their work. "Spede was a very serious person, too," Loiri later recalled said. "He had high pressures: he had to master comedy, the Spede-image, make new shows and take care of a business handling a large amount of money." (Saisko pluvan, Vesa-Matti Loiri, by Petri Nevalainen, 2010, pp. 92-93) For Pasanen's television shows Loiri created such characters as Nasse-setä, a child-hating, more or less drunken children's program host, and the big-nosed Jean Pierre Kusela, parodying the chanson singer Jean-Claude Pascal. In the 1970 Pasanen had become one of the best-known film and television personalities in Finland, but at the same time he was relatively secretive about his personal life. He did not answer inquiries sent by the editors of Who is Who in Finland, and he avoided interviews. However, he was not a recluse. He played golf, often in Spain, with a number of his friends, such as Matti Ahde, the director of Finland's national sports betting organization, and in the 1990s he was regularly seen on TV in his game program, "Speden Spelit". In it he played games with beauty queens and celebrities, proving to be in excellent physical condition at the age of 70. He also developed his inventions in his own workshop, Speden paja – Pasanen had several patents. One of his most famous invenstions was "spede linko", which gave a push for ski jumpers. Pasanen's chauvinist last film, Naisen logiikka (1999), dealing with differences between male and female ways of thinking, was a total failure. It ran in Helsinki for two weeks and had 232 spectators. Pasanen died of a heart attack on a golfcourse in Sarfvik, Kirkkonummi, on September 7, 2001. Ten days before he had sold sold his production company Spede-Tuotanto Oy to Pankkiiriliike Sofi Oyj. With Uuno Turhapuro films Pasanen became the most successful independent producer in Finland. The relationship between him and the Finnish Film Foundation was strained especially in the 1970s and 1980s, when the Foundation repeatedly refused to give any financial support to his productions. As a protest Pasanen chopped in 1981 with an ax copies of his early films, rather than to give them to the Film Foundation's archives. The character Uuno Turhapuro appeared originally in television sketches and was then adapted to screen. The first movie gained a huge success and was followed by 18 other Uuno movies. Occasionally Vesa-Matti Loiri wanted to leave the role and return to the stage in serious plays, but was always persuaded by Pasanen to make one more film. However, Loiri was not seen in Uuno Turhapuron veli (1994), in which Esko Salminen played Uuno's brother. "Kun on kuusi tuntia valveilla ja kahdeksantoista tuntia nukkuu, ei jää paljon vapaa aikaa." (in Uuno Turhapuron huikeat poikamiesvuodet maaseudulla, 1990 - "When one sleeps six hours and is awake eighteen hours, there is not much left for free time.") Uuno's tragedy is that he believes his own lies, the joke is that he is taken seriously. He is a shameless hedonist, scruffy, worm-like wriggling do-nothing, a Finnish Oblomov. Often by some coincidence and by his great self-confidence he manages to fulfill his primitive dreams. His refrigerator becomes full of food, he wins money, and is elected President. Uuno wife Elisabeth (Marjatta Raita) is an ordinary Finnish woman, who lives in everyday reality. As a husband Uuno is a fake, which is the source of his constant marital crisis. Pasanen's own character was Härski-Hartinainen, a cynical owner of a garage. Simo Salminen played Härski's friend, Sörsselssön. Cinematically the films looked poor, but it never bothered the audience. For further information: Spede by Tommi Aitio (2002); 'Speden tarina siskon kertomana' by Kari Kyheröinen in Seura (19.10.2001); Drifting Shadows by Peter von Bagh (2000); Suomen kansallisfilmografia 9, ed. by Sakari Toiviainen, Arto Haarala et al. (2000); Suomen kansallisfilmografia 8, ed. by Sakari Toiviainen, Arto Haarala et al. (1999); Suomen kansallisfilmografia 7, ed. by Kari Uusitalo, Sakari Toiviainen et al. (1998); 'Viihteen yleismies Pertti Pasanen' by Kimmo Laine in Kansallisgalleria: Suuret suomalaiset, ed. by Allan Tiitta (1997); Yleisradion historia 1926-1996, vol. 2 by Raimo Salokangas (1996); Elon aika by Aarre Elo (1996); U.T. Tutkimusretkiä Uunolandiaan, ed. by Jukka Sihvonen (1991); Viihdevuosien vilinässä by Antero Alpola (1988) Films and other works (as producer, writer, editor, actor, or director):
|
