Vitalis Gruodis

Vitalis Gruodis (24 March 1921 – 30 December 2011) was a Lithuanian theater actor and director of the first Lithuanian television broadcast. He is the father of director Rimantas Gruodis. Gruodis is responsible for creating around thirty documentaries, as well as a multitude of Soviet-era Lithuanian films and plays for children.

Biography Vitalis Gruodis was born on 24 March 1921 in the village of in the Samara Oblast of Russia. Gruodis' grandparents were deported to Russia because of their participation in the 1863 January Uprising. In 1922, Gruodis and his parents returned to Lithuania, were provided with land, and worked as farmers in the Rokiškis District Municipality.

From 1939 to 1941, he attended the , and upon graduating in 1941, began work as an actor and director. From 1947 to 1954, Gruodis switched to acting and directing in the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre in Vilnius. From 1947 to 1949, Gruodis was the director of the Lithuanian SSR Writers' Union Literature Foundation. From 1949 to 1951, he was the director of the , the only professional ensemble of dancers and players of traditional instruments in the Baltic States.

Vitalis Gruodis died on 30 December 2011 in Vilnius.

Notable works Raudonkepuraitė (Little Red Riding Hood), 1952, children's play Princas ir elgeta (The Prince and the Beggar), 1953, children's play Posūkis (The Turn), 1967 (secondary director) Kai aš mažas buvau (When I Was Little), 1968 (secondary director) Birželis, vasaros pradžia (June, the Beginning of Summer), 1969 (secondary director) Trečiojo grūdo likimas (The Fate of the Third Grain), 1971 Bendraamžiai (Contemporaries), 1973 Aš, Vytautas Alseika (I, Vytautas Alseika), 1973 Vėtrungėm paženklinti (To Mark the Weather Vanes), 1975 Kaltinami žmogžudyste (Accused of Murder), 1977 Karlagas – mirties žemė (Karlag – the Land of Death), 1990