Aare Laanemets

Aare Laanemets (6 February 1954 – 28 October 2000)[1] was an Estonian actor and theatre director, who is possibly best recalled for his role as Joosep Toots in three film adaptations of novels penned by author Oskar Luts: Kevade (1969), Suvi (1976), and Sügis (1990).

Among his graduating classmates were Merle Karusoo, Ago-Endrik Kerge, Urmas Kibuspuu, Kalju Orro, Anne Paluver, Külliki Tool, Lembit Peterson, Priit Pedajas, Eero Spriit, and Peeter Volkonski.

[4] At age fifteen, while still a secondary student at the Tallinn Sports Boarding School, Laanemets was cast as the character Joosep Toots in the 1969 Arvo Kruusement directed Estonian language film Kevade (English: Spring) for Tallinnfilm; a film adaptation of author Oskar Luts' popular 1912 short novel of the same name which followed the lives of residents of the rural, fictitious village of Paunvere in the early 20th-century.

[5] In 1972, at age eighteen, Laanemets was cast in a starring role as Jim Hawkins in Ostrov sokrovishch, a Russian language Soviet film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, directed by Yevgeni Fridman.

[6] In 1974, he had a small role in the Naum Birman-directed Russian language World War II action film Ya sluzhu na granitse.

[5] Prominent roles in his stage career included those in works by Selma Lagerlöf, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Brian Friel, A. H. Tammsaare, Gerhart Hauptmann, Raivo Trass, August Kitzberg, Nikos Kazantzakis, Marc Camoletti, and Maurice Maeterlinck, among others.

His first prominent television role was that of Tisler in the Elvi Koppel-directed Eesti Televisioon (ETV) children's play Kardemoni linna rahvas ja röövlid in 1976.