As a student in Pleven, Georgi Partsalev was accepted into medicine, dentistry, and law at the same time. His family insisted that he choose medicine and he enrolled in the specialty at Sofia University. He studied from 1945 to 1951, but at the beginning of his fifth year he finally chose the stage. He never received a medical degree, and later did not graduate from a theater institute.
His acting career began not in an academy, but in amateur groups and at the Labor Service Theater. He then worked at the Theater of Construction Troops, before in 1956 he became part of the newly created troupe of the Satirical Theater “Aleko Konstantinov“. Over the course of 32 theater seasons, Partsalev played 40 roles. Among the most memorable are Osip in “The Inspector“, Podkalyosin in “Marriage“, Hadji Simion in “Uncles“, Suso in “January“ and Gamasha in “Sumatokha“.
Library instead of a car
Off stage, Partsalev is a collector of objects with history. In the apartments he rents, he arranges antique icons, furniture and jewelry. He never bought a car, although he traveled constantly for performances and pop-satire concerts in the country. The largest place in his personal world is occupied by a library of about 3,000 volumes of Bulgarian and world classics.
His first film appearance was in “Favorite 13“ in 1958. Roles followed that made him one of the most recognizable Bulgarian comedy actors - in “The Affectionate Balloon“, “The Whale“, “The Five from Moby Dick“, “With Children at Sea“, “Poor Summer“, “My Father the Painter“, “Two Diopters of Farsightedness“ and “The 13th Bride of the Prince”. For the role of Metodi Rashkov in “Poor Summer“ he received an award at the Karlovy Vary Festival.
Dreams that remain unplayed
Despite his popularity, Partsalev did not receive a theatrical award in Bulgaria. The title of “Honored Artist“ was awarded to him when he was 44 years old, and “People's Artist“ he received in 1983. Among his unfulfilled professional dreams are the roles of Hamlet and Don Quixote. Critics even called him “Don Quixote of Levski“, but he never reached this image.
In the last archived conversation, recorded on September 27, 1989, the actor spoke about the relationship between man and profession: “To be a good actor, you must also be a good person.“ Less than two months later, on October 31, 1989, Georgi Partsalev died in Sofia at the age of 64. What remains is the image of an artist without formal theatrical education, who transformed intonation, gesture and kindness into a kind of signature of Bulgarian comedy.
Sources: archives.bnr.bg, bta.bg, 24chasa.bg