A crowd gathered Thursday at the National "Ivan Vazov" Theater in downtown Sofia to pay last respects to great Bulgarian actor, Georgi Cherkelov.

Cherkerlov was buried in the afternoon in the Central Sofia Cemetery. He died on February 19, at the age of 81, from a stroke he suffered several months earlier.

The actor was born in the southern Bulgarian city of Haskovo. He graduated from the Theater and Film Academy in Sofia and his acting career started in 1956 in the theater of Vratsa.

Cherkelov's movie debut came in 1961. One of his most famous roles is that of Bogdan Velinski in the legendary Bulgarian TV series "Na Vseki Kilometer" (On Every Kilometer). The prototype of Velinksi was the Head of the Police Unit for the Fight against Communism until 1944, Nikola Geshov, presented by the Socialist cinema as an evil character.

His partner and opposite in the movie was Major Deyanov, a Communist hero, played by another star actor – famous Stefan Danailov, also a former Culture Minister in the Three-Way Coalition cabinet from the quota of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, and BSP vice presidential candidate at the October 2011 elections.

Danailov was among the hundreds of relatives, friends, and colleagues, some of whom popular actors and movie directors, who attended the Thursday wake. He asked God to be more lenient with Bulgaria's great movie and drama actors because in the course of just two months the country lost several other prominent names.

"From those who made Na Vseki Kilometer," I am the only one living, at least from the screenwriters, the directors, the cameramen, and the main group of actors. It is like losing your family. We were family. Georgi showed me how to play a bad person," Danailov said.

Georgi Cherkelov had over 100 theater roles and played in nearly 70 movies.