Tõnis Rätsep

Tõnis Rätsep (born 30 June 1947) is an Estonian actor, musician, educator, poet, and playwright.

Early life and education Tõnis Rätsep was born in Viljandi, one of two children to a father who was a dairyman and a mother who worked in a dairy laboratory. The family later relocated to Rakvere,

In 1968 he enrolled at the Tallinn University of Technology, majoring in energetics, graduating in 1972. Among his graduating classmates were Kersti Kreismann, Ivo Eensalu, Vello Janson, Rein Kotkas, Helle Meri (née Pihlak), Katrin Kumpan, Martin Veinmann, and Juhan Viiding. Later that year, he was cast in the role of Don Antonio in the Arvo Kruusement-directed romantic feature film musical-comedy Don Juan Tallinnas for Tallinnfilm. In 1972, shortly after graduating from the Tallinn Conservatory, Rätsep began an engagement as a stage actor at the Estonian Drama Theatre in Tallinn. He left the theatre in 1975, before returning in 1978, remaining until 1995. In 1975, he appeared as Toomas, opposite actors Elle Kull and Heino Mandri, in the Tõnis Kask and Ben Drui-directed television drama film Aeg maha!.

In addition to acting, Rätsep has also composed the musical score for the 2011 Arko Okk-directed documentary Monoloogid 3D.

Collaboration with Juhan Viiding While attending the Tallinn Conservatory, Tõnis Rätsep befriended classmate Juhan Viiding. Apart from acting, the two shared a love of music and poetry and began a lifelong collaboration – reciting poetry set to music at venues throughout Estonia. In 1972, Rätsep and Viiding, along with actor Lembit Ulfsak, formed the musical ensemble Amor Trio, which performed songs from the 1930s and 1940s, frequently appearing on television. The trio disbanded the following year. An album titled Amor Trio 1972 was released in 2004 on the Theka label. In 1979, Rätsep and Viiding co-wrote a play titled Olevused, republished in 2014 by Eesti Keele Sihtasutus. In 1989, the duo recorded an album, Öötöö, as a cassette-only release for the Estonian label Kuldnokk. Rätsep and Viiding would remain close friends until Viiding's suicide in 1995. Their last performance together, Kallis õhtu, took place in 1994 at the café of Rakvere Theatre.

Politics In October 1980, Rätsep was a signatory of the Letter of 40 Intellectuals, a public letter in which forty prominent Estonian intellectuals defended the Estonian language and protested the Russification policies of the Kremlin in Estonia. The signatories also expressed their unease against Republic-level government in harshly dealing with youth protests in Tallinn that were sparked a week earlier due to the banning of a public performance of the punk rock band Propeller.

Educator From 1975 until 1981, Rätsep was a lecturer at the Tallinn Pedagogical Institute, and from 1995 until 2004 he was a lecturer at the Estonian Institute of Humanities. Order of the National Coat of Arms, IV Class (2006)