site.btaJan. 13, 2025 Marks 100th Birth Anniversary of Actor Georgi Kaloyanchev

On January 13, 1925, exactly 100 years ago, renown Bulgarian actor Georgi Kaloyanchev was born in Burgas (on the Black Sea coast). 

"I loved watching people talk and gesticulate. I used to go to the harbour and stare at them - how they moved, how they spoke, how they dressed," says the actor, who was renowned for his roles in movies and in plays at the Aleko Konstantinov Satirical Theatre in Sofia.

His parents Ruska and Todor owned a dairy where Georgi helped them as a child. "In the morning my father would pick me up at 4 a.m.. He gave me two gyums [a tall metal container with narrow neck and handle for milk, water, etc.] to sell milk around the neighbourhood. We used to make 300-400 litres of milk a day. I was churning, souring - all day long. When my father went to rest, I stayed to watch the apprentices. During that time, the artists would come and I would give them milk for no money," said Kaloyanchev.

A celebration of his life will be held in the Satirical Theater on Monday. It will feature his son, Ivaylo, and the Theatre Director Kalin Sirmenov. There will also be a screening of the 1999 film about Kaloyanchev, "Umno Selo: the Views of a Homo Ludens", written by Antoaneta Bachurova and Vladimir Lyutskanov.

Kaloyanchev was known to generations of Bulgarians for his multiple roles on the stage of Sofia's Satirical Theatre and in Bulgarian cinema.

The viewers remember Kaloyanchev from Bulgarian films such as Dawn Over the Homeland (1951), Jack-of-All-Trades (1962), The Inspector and the Night (1963), The She-Wolf (1965), It's Nice to See You (1984), Where Are You Going? (1986), Under the Yoke (1990), Bay Ganyo (1990), Fatal Tenderness (1993), and Pantudi (1993).

Kaloyanchev's theatrical performances include roles in Mr Balkansky by Georgi Danailov, Golemanov by St. L. Kostov, On the Other Side by Stanislav Stratiev, The Bedbug by Vladimir Mayakovsky, The Government Inspector by Nikolay Gogol, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht, and The Old Man and the Arrow by Nikola Rousev.

Kaloyanchev received many titles and distinctions during his life, including Honoured Artist of the State Satirical Theatre in 1963, People's Artist in 1966, the Order of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, first range, in 1975, Award of the Union of Bulgarian Actors in 1977, and the Order of the Balkan Range, first range, for exceptional merits to Bulgaria in 2000.