Soviet and Russian theater and film actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1990).

Born in Terijoki (now Zelenogorsk, part of Saint Petersburg). This is evidenced by an entry in the church register of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on Bolshaya Posadskaya Street, where Georgy was baptized. However, in later official documents, his date of birth came to be listed as April 23, 1918, and his place of birth as Petrograd. This happened because Vitsin's mother in the 1920s, while enrolling her son in a forest health school, made him "younger" and corrected the year of birth to 1918. April 23 (May 6) was his name day. The future actor's original surname also looked different — "Vitsyn" — but later, due to a passport clerk's error, the letter "y" was changed to "i". His parents were natives of Russian provinces: his mother Maria Matveyevna was from Penza, his father Mikhail Yegorovich was from the village of Nebyloye in the Vladimir region; neither had any connection to art. When Georgy was eight months old, the family moved to Moscow. His mother took a job as an usher at the Column Hall of the House of Unions and often took her son with her. From the age of twelve, Vitsin began performing on the school stage, usually in the role of villains. In 1926–1933 he studied at Moscow School No. 26 (a seven-year school), in 1933–1934 at the Theater School of the Maly Theater (now the M. S. Shchepkin Higher Theater School), from which he was expelled with the wording "for a frivolous attitude toward the educational process." In 1934 he entered the Theater School of the E. Vakhtangov Theater (now the Boris Shchukin Theater Institute). On October 1, 1934, he was enrolled in the drama studio of the Second Moscow Art Theater, where he studied under S. G. Birman, A. I. Blagonravov, and V. N. Tatarinov (all in Moscow). From 1936 he was an actor of the theater-studio under the direction of N. P. Khmelev, in 1937–1969 of the Moscow Drama Theater named after M. N. Yermolova, which absorbed the theater-studio, and in 1969–2001 of the Film Actor Theater-Studio (all in Moscow). The actor gained wide fame through the character of the Coward, which he embodied in L. I. Gaidai's comedies ("Barbos the Dog and the Unusual Cross," "Moonshiners," "Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures," and "Kidnapping, Caucasian Style, or Shurik's New Adventures"). In general, G. Vitsin often had to play drunkard characters, and in these roles he was very convincing, as he had a distinctive voice and appearance. In real life the actor did not drink or smoke, led a healthy lifestyle, and was fond of yogic breathing exercises. But in "Kidnapping, Caucasian Style" the actor still had to drink real beer, since the rosehip drink that G. Vitsin demanded looked unconvincing on screen. Vitsin was an artist — he drew caricatures of actors and tried his hand at sculpture, graphics, and painting.