Vesa-Matti Loiri

Who is Vesa-Matti Loiri?

Vesa-Matti "Vesku" Loiri is a Finnish actor, musician and comedian, best known for his role as Uuno Turhapuro, whom he portrayed in a total of 20 movies between the years 1973 and 2004.

Loiri became an actor in 1962, when he had a role in the movie Pojat, directed by Mikko Niskanen. Loiri did most of his work with Spede Pasanen. In 2005, he starred in the film Shadow of the Eagle, which was directed by Timo Koivusalo. Six films starring Loiri are in the top 20 list of the highest-grossing domestic films in Finland. Total amount of tickets sold to the screenings of these six films is 3,715,948.

As a musician, Loiri has performed Perttu Hietanen's compositions, Eino Leino's poems, Carl Michael Bellman's drinking songs and Juha "Watt" Vainio's songs. Loiri also plays the flute, a talent he put to use representing Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 1980 in The Hague/Netherlands with the song "Huilumies", dedicated to his flute. He finished last in a field of 19 participating countries. During his career, Loiri has sold over 730,000 certified records in Finland and is currently the fifth-best-selling soloist and ninth-best-selling artist of all time in the country.