A red car on the road and loud music blasting on the radio, while the driver with unbuttoned shirt smokes expensive cigarettes and a young woman indulges him with chocolate. This is not the beginning of a Hollywood movie. The car is a "Moskvich" and the movie is starring Georgi Partsalev. In 1972 one of the masterpieces of Bulgarian cinema "S Detza na More” (On the beach, with kids) written by Mormarevi Brothers was shown in cinemas. It involved almost all children actors known from "Taralezhite se razhdat bez bodli” (Hedgehogs are born without spines), but the soul of the film and main character is unfortunate Chicho Mancho (uncle Mancho). Children inadvertently disrupt the plans of their neighbor from Sofia, who is on a business trip with a woman. "Ha-ha-ha, Chicho Mancho, I shot you !!!" He hears these words and his heart sinks...
A red "Moskvich," similar to that of the film and wax sculpture of beloved actor George Partsalev will be among the exhibits of the first Bulgarian "Retro Museum" in Varna. A quarter of a century after Partsalev passed away Bulgarian viewers still remember with a smile this and dozens of his other roles.

What were the roles he remembered?

"Of course, every person I played gave me great creative satisfaction. They feel close despite the fact I was pestering him, with laughter and mockery.”

Who is the character you value most?

”I will know better when I celebrate my 100th anniversary. But I think that this is Barbarian from The Death of Tarelkin by Sukhovo-Kobylin”, Partsalev further explains.

The actor was born in 1925 in the city of Levski and graduated from the high school in Pleven. After that he studied medicine at Sofia University but did not graduate as he was already performing in Vazrazhdane Theatre, hiding the fact from his family. His father was a wealthy man, but was strict with his son. He used to tell him: "If you want, take the whole class to the inn. I will later pay the innkeeper”, and he did not give him any money. Once the young Partsalev wrote in his diary: "Today I missed a great movie - I had no money"! The same day his father arrived in Pleven. He saw the open page and wrote: "Money spoils people." Georgi Partsalev himself believed in that. He did not save any money during his live and was extremely generous with everyone. Fellow actors and friends remember him not only as a superb artist, but also as a great person

"I want to present myself. I was born and I lived well because of my parents' support. Ivan Partsalev, my father, was a great guy and was not angry that I was spending his money. He had just one wish – he wanted me to become a doctor. I want to see you in a white doctor's coat, and then I could die, he used to say. He wanted me to become a doctor, but theatre was inside my heart. I made the audience cry when I was six years old, playing Quasimodo. Later I cried too - my sister gave me a nice beating when she discovered I had taken her shorts. That was how my career as a drama actor started. And who knows what would have happened if an accident hadn't changed this. In a play, the main character, the part I performed, had to commit suicide. It was planned that when I point the gun to the forehead, Marincho Props, a friend of mine, would fire a shot somewhere behind the scenes. I pointed the gun ... and nothing. There was no shot. I was holding helplessly the weapon but there was only silence. Then I saw a knife on the table. I grabbed it and stuck it in my heart. It was then when Marincho fired a shot. After this event whenever, I appeared on stage, the audience started laughing. That is how I became a comedy actor. One does not know what would happen to them. I entered theater with the image of a clown and after the opening of the Satirical Theatre in 1956 I started working there. This is what I am, in short.”

Although he had no theatrical education, Georgi Partsalev was among the first actors in the newly created Satirical Theatre and played brilliant roles in "The Death of Tarelkin", "Michal Mishkoed," “Golemanov,” to mention but a few.

His first appearance on the movie screen was in 1958 in Lyubimets 13. A great number of movies followed, turning him into a star and one of the most beloved actors. He passed away, aged 64, in Sofia in 1989.

“Laughter is something serious. We should not make people laugh at gibberish,” he used to say.

English: Alexander Markov