Obituary | Antti Litja was the archetype of Finnishness, who acted more with his soul than his body: “A person who radiates quiet warmth”

Culture|Obituary

Actor Antti Litja was born in Antrea on February 21, 1938. He died in a nursing home in Helsinki from a sudden illness on the night between Tuesday, July 12 and Wednesday, July 13, 2022. He was 84 years old when he died.

As the son of a recluse family, Litja grew up shy, but kept his Karelian double self all his life without ever losing his gift of a gifted storyteller.

His theater career began in the 1950s at the same acting incubator, Helsinki’s Kellariteatteri or Klitsu, which produced Esko Salminen and Ritva Vepsä, among others. Litja called herself the “James Dean of a time of scarcity”. So this Dean was accepted to the Suomen Teatterikoulu in 1960.

Its after that he played more Finnish presidents. For example, he played the role of Mannerheim in the TV series of Atro Lahtela, Eero Silvasti and Anneli Kanno Presidents that Paavo Haaviko is writing for the Helsinki City Theater Airo and Brita in the play.

Litja was the most recognizable archetype of Finnishness, Arto Paasilinnan Year of the Rabbit an outlaw agency fugitive and the rough rebel of other absurd Finnish comedies directed by Risto Jarva.

The character of Litja, written by Tuomas Kyrö and directed by Dome Karukoski, was transferred to the image of a Finnish man as a pappa basic man Mind blowingin the movie (2014). The man’s fur coat, woodcutter’s backpack and swinging ax of a man spouting sarcastic truths gathered record audiences. Litja won Juss the best actor for this.

At the same Jussi gala in 2015, he was awarded the lifetime achievement award, Betoni-Jussi. The actor, who experienced a cerebral infarction the previous year, no longer came to pick up his awards himself. The task was passed on to the next generation.

A mind breaker as planned, the theatrical premiere at the Finnish National Theater was never seen in the role of Litja. Vesa Vierikko stepped into the role. “A good person and a good actor,” Litja described Vierikko, who inherited her role.

Litja is also remembered for her remarkable placement. In 2008, he took on the role of the sick Pentti Siimes in Ronald Harwood, much loved by Finns Quartet– in the play, which is about a retirement home for opera singers. Together with Lasse Pöyst, Kyllikki Forssell and Ritva Valkama, he continued the year-long history of the show directed by Neil Hardwick in the four-leaf clover of Finland’s most beloved actors. The show left the Helsinki City Theater’s repertoire at the end of 2011.

All, who worked with Antti Litja, are the first to say that they don’t know anyone else who has such a witty sense of humor and sense of comedy. With Litja both in the theater and with Matti Ijäksen In the ring of dreams Anna-Leena Sipilä, who acted, describes her co-star’s stories as works of art.

In the TV series Team Wolverine Litja’s fluency came into its own. For example, the car dealer Litja bought a car for his female customer, which broke down at the next bend.

Peace of mind and wisdom in life were hallmarks of Litja’s acting work.

“Litja triggered the tensions of the situations and made the young anxious actor approach his work and every scene calmly. Litja herself created a sense of relaxation in them with her stories. His work looked easy. I don’t know if it was”, Sipilä recalls.

Sipilä describes how, in Litja’s minimal expression, great things and feelings grew from within, from living in the moment. “He could tell so much about a person with his microexpressions.”

“Litja was the most honest person I knew. He spoke openly about his alcoholism, which resulted in him not even being able to use aftershave because it already triggered wrong signals,” says Sipilä.

Litja was working in the largest Finnish theaters such as Helsinki City Theatre, Tampere Työväen Theater and Tampere Theatre. He worked at the Finnish National Theater already during his theater school days and later in the years 1975–1985 and 2012–2014. He was able to control his sometimes destructive alcoholism, and he was especially happy to return to the National Theater even in his retirement years.

Director and playwright Juha Jokela invited him Patriarch-play and later also graduated from the Espoo City Theater To the performance economy. Raimo Grönberg, who acted alongside Litja in both, describes Litja as sensitive and even shy. And yet:

“Kainuu’s son was surprised when Litja told a joke and in the middle of a sentence threw herself into the camera-is-running situation. Then continued the sentence where he left off.”

In addition, the duo acted together in Timo Linnasalo, which premiered in 1974 A guarded village in 1944 in the movie.

Grönberg thinks that Litja’s occasional drinking was some kind of “self-esteem drinking”. But only the writer Jorma Ojaharju could give the name of the biography he edited in 2003 about Litja The man who learned to say no. This was a reference to Litja’s famous comedy role in Risto Jarva’s film The man who couldn’t say no.

Actor Laura Jurkka lived with Litja in the same Thalian Torpa intended for senior members of the Actors’ Association in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki, before Litja moved to a nursing home.

“Litja was a pleasant, intelligent person who radiated quiet warmth,” says Jurkka. “Even from a walker, he cultivated his sense of humor. He acted more with his soul than with his body, and you can read a huge amount of information from his eyes.”

Litja even went from the nursing home to greet her actor friends, even though she needed a wheelchair.

Antti Litja’s last work was the role of Ian McEwan in the National Theatre Saturdayin the show in 2014.

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