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The Most Famous

ACTORS from Finland

This page contains a list of the greatest Finnish Actors. The pantheon dataset contains 9,996 Actors, 16 of which were born in Finland. This makes Finland the birth place of the 43rd most number of Actors behind Serbia and Croatia.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Finnish Actors of all time. This list of famous Finnish Actors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Finnish Actors.

1. George Gaynes (1917 - 2016)

With an HPI of 63.83, George Gaynes is the most famous Finnish Actor. His biography has been translated into 36 different languages on wikipedia.

George Gaynes (born George Jongejans; May 16, 1917 – February 15, 2016) was a Russian-American singer, actor, and voice artist. Born to Dutch and Russian-Finnish parents in the Grand Duchy of Finland of the Russian Empire, he served in the Royal Netherlands Navy during World War II, and subsequently emigrated to the United States, where he became a citizen and began his acting career on Broadway. Gaynes' most recognized roles in cinema were that of Commandant Eric Lassard in the Police Academy series and as John Van Horn in the 1982 comedy film Tootsie. He appeared as the curmudgeonly but lovable foster parent Henry Warnimont on the NBC series Punky Brewster; as high-powered theatrical producer Arthur Feldman on The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd; as Senator Strobe Smithers in the hit TV show Hearts Afire; and as Frank Smith, the mob boss brought down by Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) and Laura Spencer (Genie Francis) on the soap opera General Hospital.

2. Gustaf Molander (1888 - 1973)

With an HPI of 49.86, Gustaf Molander is the 2nd most famous Finnish Actor. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Gustaf Harald August Molander (18 November 1888 – 19 June 1973) was a Swedish actor and film director. His parents were director Harald Molander, Sr. (1858–1900) and singer and actress Lydia Molander, née Wessler, and his brother was the director Olof Molander (1892–1966). He was the father of director and producer Harald Molander from his first marriage, from 1910-1918, with actress Karin Molander and father to actor Jan Molander from his second marriage to Elsa Fahlberg (1892–1977). Gustaf Molander was born in Helsingfors (now Helsinki) in the Grand Duchy of Finland (in the Russian Empire), where his father was working at the Swedish Theatre. He studied in the school of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm 1907–1909, acted at the Swedish theatre in Helsingfors 1909–1913, and then at the Royal Dramatic Theatre from 1913 to 1926. The last years there he headed the school; his students included Greta Garbo. Molander wrote several screenplays for Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller, and was helped by the latter to get employment as a director for Svensk Filmindustri, where he worked 1923–1956. All in all, he directed 62 films. He often worked with Gösta Ekman, and his films include Intermezzo (1936), which became Ingrid Bergman's breakthrough and paved her way to America, where she starred in the 1939 Hollywood remake of the film. In 1943 he directed Ordet, the first film version of the play of the same name written by the Protestant pastor Kaj Munk, not to be confused with the second and more famous version of the film brought to the big screen by Carl Theodor Dreyer. The Danish master's film was shot twelve years later and won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival. In 1948 Molander made what should have been his last film, Eva, but almost twenty years later, in 1967, he agreed to participate as a director of an episode in the collective film Stimulantia only to return to work with Ingrid Bergman 30 years later.

3. Tapio Rautavaara (1915 - 1979)

With an HPI of 49.76, Tapio Rautavaara is the 3rd most famous Finnish Actor. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Kaj Tapio Rautavaara (8 March 1915 – 25 September 1979) was a Finnish singer (bass-baritone), athlete and film actor.

4. Peter Franzén (1971 - )

With an HPI of 48.77, Peter Franzén is the 4th most famous Finnish Actor. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Peter Vilhelm Franzén (born 14 August 1971) is a Finnish actor, author, screenwriter, and director. He is best known for his role as King Harald Finehair in Vikings (2016–2020).

5. Stina Ekblad (1954 - )

With an HPI of 48.60, Stina Ekblad is the 5th most famous Finnish Actor. Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Stina Åsa Maria Ekblad (born 26 February 1954) is a Swedish-speaking Finnish actress. Living in Stockholm, she has appeared mostly in Swedish productions. She received a Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in 1987 for her performances in Amorosa and Ormens väg på hälleberget (The Serpent's Way) and was nominated again in 1996 for her performance in Pensionat Oskar. Ekblad was born in the Ostrobothnian village of Solf in 1954. The village is nowadays part of the municipality of Korsholm.

6. Matti Pellonpää (1951 - 1995)

With an HPI of 47.79, Matti Pellonpää is the 6th most famous Finnish Actor. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Matti Pellonpää (28 March 1951 in Helsinki – 13 July 1995 in Vaasa) was a Finnish actor and a musician. He rose to international fame with his roles in both Aki Kaurismäki's and Mika Kaurismäki's films; particularly being a regular in Aki's films, appearing in 18 of them.

7. Taina Elg (1930 - )

With an HPI of 47.59, Taina Elg is the 7th most famous Finnish Actor. Her biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Taina Elisabeth Elg (born 9 March 1930) is a Finnish-American actress and dancer. She has appeared on stage, television, and in film.

8. Vesa-Matti Loiri (1945 - 2022)

With an HPI of 46.76, Vesa-Matti Loiri is the 8th most famous Finnish Actor. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Vesa-Matti "Vesku" Loiri (4 January 1945 – 10 August 2022) was 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. According to Yle News, ″Loiri was one of Finland's most beloved cultural figures over six decades, playing comic and tragic roles on screen and stage, alongside a musical career″.

9. Kati Outinen (1961 - )

With an HPI of 46.39, Kati Outinen is the 9th most famous Finnish Actor. Her biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Anna Katriina "Kati" Outinen (born 17 August 1961) is a Finnish actress who has often played leading female roles in Aki Kaurismäki's films. Outinen was born in Helsinki. Having studied under Jouko Turkka during his "reign" of drama studies in Finland, she nevertheless has never been associated with the "turkkalaisuus" school of acting methodology. Her breakthrough role was as a tough girl in the generational classic youth film Täältä tullaan elämä (1980) by Tapio Suominen. In 1984, she appeared in Aikalainen. Besides a strong domestic reputation gained through a widely varied list of roles in theatre and television drama, film director Aki Kaurismäki's films have brought Outinen international attention and even adulation, particularly in Germany and France. Her first work together with Kaurismäki was Shadows in Paradise in 1986. At the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, Outinen won the award for Best Actress for the Kaurismäki film The Man Without a Past. The most recent time that Outinen and Kaurismäki worked together was in the film The Other Side of Hope (2017). She has also contributed to the screenplay of the Finnish soap opera Salatut elämät. Outinen portrayed the central character of a Swedish bank manager in the Estonian series The Bank (2018). She has appeared as a voice actress in the animation series Babar. She has also given her voice to Ritva Tuomivaara on the video game Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (2017). In 2016, Outinen played with Jim Carrey in the film Dark Crimes. Outinen worked as a professor in acting at the Theatre Academy Helsinki from 2002 to 2013.

10. Tauno Palo (1908 - 1982)

With an HPI of 45.98, Tauno Palo is the 10th most famous Finnish Actor. Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Tauno Valdemar Palo (born Tauno Brännäs; 25 October 1908 – 24 May 1982) was a Finnish actor and singer in what some consider the golden age of Finnish cinema. In Guide to the Cinema of Sweden and Finland Peter von Bagh names Palo as the most renowned, the best-loved, and quite indisputably the greatest and the best actor of Finnish cinema. His skill to combine lightweight and youthful charm with heavyweight acting was seen most clearly in the theatre. His most famous roles were perhaps in Kulkurin valssi ("The Vagabond's Waltz"), and Vaimoke ("Surrogate Wife"). He appeared with actress/singer Birgit Kronström in the 1941 romantic comedy "Onnellinen ministeri" ("The Lucky Cabinet Minister"), which included the famous song "Katupoikien laulu", remade by other Finnish pop singers including Katri Helena.

People

Pantheon has 16 people classified as actors born between 1888 and 1986. Of these 16, 10 (62.50%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living actors include Peter Franzén, Stina Ekblad, and Taina Elg. The most famous deceased actors include George Gaynes, Gustaf Molander, and Tapio Rautavaara. As of April 2022, 5 new actors have been added to Pantheon including Peter Franzén, Stina Ekblad, and Matti Pellonpää.