Pertti Olavi "Spede" Pasanen (10 April 1930 – 7 September 2001) was a Finnish film director and producer, comedian, and inventor,[6] who has been called an "all-around entertainer".

[7] During his career he directed, wrote, produced or acted in about 50 movies and participated in numerous TV productions, including the comedy Spede Show and the game-show Speden Spelit.

Much of his more commercial work was in collaboration with Vesa-Matti Loiri (whose most popular character created by Pasanen was Uuno Turhapuro; first in TV sketches and then in a long-lasting series of motion pictures) and Simo Salminen.

Pasanen's films and TV shows, often made quickly and on a low budget, usually received little critical recognition but were popular among Finnish audiences from the 1960s onwards.

In 1954 Kuusla, who had worked as a studio assistant at Fennada-Filmi, got Pasanen a role as a background extra in the film Laivan kannella, where he appeared as a member of a sailors' club.

During the 1950s he appeared in various background roles in comedies produced both by Fennada-Filmi and Suomen Filmiteollisuus, such as Tyttö lähtee kasarmiin (1956), Vääpelin kauhu (1957) and Asessorin naishuolet (1958).

Pakkasvirta and Risto Jarva, two young filmmakers, were part of the key personnel at the film production company Filminor owned by the student body of the Helsinki University of Technology.

The trio Pasanen-Virtanen-Kokkonen soon started producing a series of successful comedies including Millipilleri (1966), the parodical film celebrating the 50th anniversary of Finland's independence Pähkähullu Suomi (1967), the Finnish version of Robin Hood About Seven Brothers (1968) and the television satire Näköradiomiehen ihmeelliset siekailut (1969).

[16]: 168, 181, 186–187 Despite Pohjan Tähteet winning a shared Jussi Award for Kari Sohlberg in the category of best cinematography[18] (with Spede's own Leikkikalugangsteri and Jörn Donner's Sixtynine 69), Pasanen did not produce another colour feature until the late 1970s.

At the same time Pasanen also found two men who became his trusted actors in both film and television: Simo Salminen who had already played a part in X-Paroni and Vesa-Matti Loiri whose debut was in About Seven Brothers.

One day the producers were shooting a scene where the sheriff played by Leo Jokela sneaks up behind Speedy Gonzales, sticks a gun on his back and the hero lifts his arms up.

The last of these skit-comedy films is considered to be 1990s Rampe & Naukkis - Kaikkien aikojen superpari, which was lampooned on the popular characters created by Pirkka-Pekka Petelius and Aake Kalliala for the TV show Pulttibois.

However, the director of the advertisement studio that had filmed the commercials featuring him announced he could not stand the "Spede style", so Pasanen made a suggestion to Mainostelevisio to make a program all of his own.

Of the available short male actors, Pasanen contemplated Matti Kuusla, but he was already running his own entertainment company along with Jukka Virtanen and Aarre Elo.

Pasanen also produced more drama-programming such as Hynttyyt Yhteen, Blondi tuli taloon (The Blonde That Came to the House), and Ihmeiden tekijät (as well as its follow-up, Parhaat Vuodet).

The film was a parody of contemporary foreign news: the first test tube baby had been born in 1978 and the television show Charlie's Angels was very popular at the time.

Pasanen took a huge risk in making the film Uuno Turhapuron veli that did not feature Loiri at all and instead starred Esko Salminen as the lead male actor.

His early films in particular, featured elements uncommon to Finnish cinema such as fist-fights, car chases, other elaborate stunt-work as well as unconventional special effects.

Many of his movies also featured unconventional settings (such as the medieval period or the wild west), though his later films focused almost entirely on poking fun at Finnish stereotypes.

In the early 1960s he had brief romances with Anja Mustamäki chosen as Paulig's new "Paula Girl" and with the Yleisradio filming secretary Arja Laine, who later married actor Tommi Rinne.

The appointment of Drockila, only 19 years old at the time, to lead an empire of companies with a total revenue of 27 million Finnish markka in 1996, caused a huge controversy.

In the 1960s Salminen and Pasanen founded a few restaurants and other places for entertainment, of which the most famous were Simon Rysä in Lappeenranta, Raikulimaa in Lemi and Speden Saluuna in Kouvola.

One of the targets of his aggression was Isto Lysmä, the editor of Nyrkkiposti, who published a fake story about a relationship between Pasanen's trusted actor Ville-Veikko Salminen and 1968 Miss Finland Leena Brusiin.

[16]: 180–181 Pasanen got into a scandal in autumn 1986 when the police suspected that about two hundred Finns had taken Finnish currency abroad to the United States illegally in order to buy an apartment or to engage in business.

Pasanen was aware of his weak condition, so he decided to sell off his entire entertainment empire and only concentrate on the things he felt were most important for himself: golf and new inventions.

A twist of fate was that the first episode of Speden Spelit after Pasanen's death was shot on 11 September 2001, when the producers had the time to see one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City collapse on live television.

Performers appearing at the concert included Vesa-Matti Loiri, Jari Sillanpää, Linda Lampenius, Danny, Samuli Edelmann and Paula Koivuniemi.

Former MTV manager and director Jorma Sairanen also confirmed that Airisto's and Souri's allegations were not a surprise to him due to Pasanen's importance and status at the network.

According to Veijo Hietala, the critics missed the fact that Pasanen was carrying on the tradition of farce that had started already in the period of silent films, where the plot is only secondary and mostly serves to create a background for slapstick humour and individual comedic scenes.

In 1981 he put an announcement in Helsingin Sanomat promising a reward for killing critic Mikael Fränti who had given a negative review of Uuno Turhapuron aviokriisi.