Sadness has been spread by the news of the actor of the old Greek cinema, Thanasis Papadopoulos, who passed away yesterday at the age of 86.

Although he always had “secondary” roles, he was an emblematic personality of Greek cinema with a characteristic role, that of “tendiboy” in the film by Yiannis Dalianidis, “Law 4000”, from 1962.

For the needs of the role and the classic scene where he is publicly humiliated by the police with the label “I’m a tennis boy, I yogurted his teacher” the actor had actually shaved his head with “the thin”, as required by law.

Thanasis Papadopoulos spoke years ago in “Time Machine” about the famous scene.

It was 1962 and in the square of Fokionos Negri everything was ready for the filming of the public display. However, many of the residents or passers-by in the area did not understand that it was a film shoot.

They didn’t know the actor and they saw that he was accompanied by two “policemen”, so they assumed that it was a real tennis boy, who had thrown yogurt at his teacher, as the tag they had “put on” said.

“The people who had gathered cursed me, spat at me and harassed me. They thought I had really done it. People almost lynched me. The era of teddy boys…” he had declared.

Thanasis Papadopoulos also played in well-known Greek films such as “Lisa and the other”, “Katiforos”, “The Remali of Fokionos Negri”, “Viva Rena”, “The paperweight”, “The wrangler who became a lamb”, “The brightest bouzouki” and “The guy with the tricycle”.

The 1980s saw the heyday of his career, as he appeared in many video films and became one of the most popular Greek actors based on film appearances.