Vasil Popiliev(1929-2002)

Vasil Dimitrov Popiliev was a Bulgarian actor . He was born in the village Bukyovtsy (now the town of Mizia ), Bulgaria on January 21, 1929. He graduated National Academy for Theatre and Film Art, Sofia, Bulgaria in 1954 with a degree in " Acting ." He was director of the Drama Theatre in Ruse. He was a stranger to any stage falseness; he understood and loved man in the characters that populate many of our movies and stage's performances. He was proud, manly, but compassionate, responsive. The entire conscious life Dedo (affectionately as he was told by colleagues and friends) went into conflicts with censors and officials from the Communist and "democratic" regimes. He was one of the Bulgarian actors whom often were invited to participate in movies in leading roles. Even two seasons he was a head of the Youth Theatre. As a head of the Russe Drama Theater and the Sofia Youth Theatre Popiliev had one's own way for putting on the stage ideologically "inconvenient" dramas. He has become a vocal opponent of straightforward dogmatists who for decades poisoned his nerves with intrigue, dismissals and candid gossip. In the mid-90th Dedo fell out with then minister of culture. Shortly thereafter there was followed his heavy heart-attack. Last years of his life Vasil Popiliev spent as a regular pensioner - in poverty, forgotten by the public and colleagues. He died on June 7, 2002 in Sofia, Bulgaria.