At Greek cinema, ook few are those deeds of great actors that are said to this day. And who helped in one way or another the actors who told them in their career or accompanied them until the end of it.
His case Mimi Fotopoulos, but it is special. Because the famous attack of "And then you will be sick" that accompanied him all the years of his brilliant career, did not spring from the cinema, but from the theater. And in fact, at the beginning, when Fotopoulos was looking for a place in the inspection. The attack did not break so much at that time, that it even became a song by Vassilis Tsitsanis.
Life showed the actress her hard face from a very early age. Born in 1913 in Zatouna of Gortynia, in a poor family, Mimis (Dimitris his baptismal name) Fotopoulos was orphaned by his father in the first years of his childhood.
He grew up in financial misery and hardship with many deprivations due to poverty. Grief accompanied him throughout his childhood, but, growing up and despite the financial difficulties, the young Mimis managed to enter the Philosophical School of Athens.
Due to his studies and in general his education and his artistic concerns, years later he was awarded the title of "wise" of Greek theater and cinema.
However, there in the second year of his studies he makes the decision to thunder them and deal with Acting, which from his childhood was his dream. He entered the Drama School of the National Theater (Royal Theater) and soon his genuine comedic talent began to unfold.
Besides, he believed that he became a good comedian due to his childhood grief but also his tragic memories from the arrival of the refugees from Asia Minor in 1922. He made his debut on the board in 1932 and then took part in theatrical bunches "plowing" the Greek countryside. .
Shortly before the War of '40 he returned to Athens and took part in a number of war inspections and musical ethnographies. And while his star as an actor had begun to rise and the streets of the theater were slowly opening for him, the outbreak of World War II found Fotopoulos fighting on the front of the fight.
Exile in Egypt
During the Occupation, he joined the ranks of EAM taking part in the National Resistance. In December 1945 and having taken refuge in an artists' hangout in Kolonaki, he was betrayed by the theater's taxi driver and arrested as a leftist by the British units with the only aggravating element being the deposition of the spy.
It is New Year's Eve 1945 when he is caught and he will soon be deported to the El Daba camp in Egypt, from where he will return in March 1945.
"Suddenly, a brutal hand hit my shoulder. I turn and see a passenger. It was the famous tomar of the theater, Apostolis. In a little while, to be in the depths of a detention center. Of course, I was in a police station, which was housed in an apartment building near America Street. In the beginning I was the only occupant. But within two hours, this dungeon was filled with so many people that we had no air to breathe "(excerpt from his autobiographical work" The river of my life ").
His return to Greece will also mean his artistic return, with him never missing from the theatrical stage of the capital.
The attack that established him as the greatest comedian
Mimis Fotopoulos collaborated with many troupes and all the big names of the stars of the time, from the Art Theater to the National. However, he literally became famous in 1948 when he took part in the "People-People" review of Sakellariou-Giannakopoulou. The reason; The attack that said in the show "And then you will get sick".
In one of the numbers of the show, the protagonist (who was Fotopoulos) was looking for a servant to do the housework for him. So he went to get a job and he welcomed him sitting comfortably in the chair, explaining his daily obligations.
Every time he told him one of the obligations, he would finish with "and then you will get sick". The attack was adored by the public, broke and in today's terms, soon went viral. And it was enough to establish Fotopoulos in the Greek review, but also in general as the greatest comedian.
In fact, the actor used this particular attack in Greek cinema. And it's one of those cases where an attack is so closely linked to the actor who said it.
Although he himself, years later had admitted in an interview that this attack had become a nightmare.
A song was composed by Vassilis Tsitsanis
Here, however, we are really dealing with a special case. Because "And then you will burn", was so successful, that it even inspired him Vassilis Tsitsanis to make it a song, with the voice of Sotiria Bellou.
In the summer of the same year (1948) and while the inspection was still being played, Tsitsanis released the song of the same name. In the lyrics of the song, the works remain almost the same, while only the faces change. The future wife praises her future husband, his daily obligations, which he must accept without protest, in order to get married.
"Do you want me to marry you?" You will do this and that to me: At seven you will wake me up with your kisses, you will hug me in your warm embrace and after you do your other duties, you will bring me the milk in my bed and then you will sit …… » , are some of the lyrics of the song.