PASSINGS / Evgenios Spatharis

Evgenios Spatharis, 85, a Greek master of shadow puppet theater, died Saturday in an Athens hospital days after being injured in a fall down a staircase while on his way to a performance, a state news agency reported.

He was well-known throughout Greece for his puppet theater stories revolving around the hunchbacked character Karagiozi, who came to represent the virtues and vices of the average Greek. Cunning and rebellious, Karagiozi was often shown as a liar and petty thief who wormed his way out of difficult situations.

The deeply satirical stories featured a varying cast of characters whose accents and mannerisms poked fun at various people in Greek society. Authority figures were represented by a Turkish pasha.

Shadow theater, a dying art form in Greece, is thought to have originated in China or India and arrived in Greece when it was part of the Ottoman Empire from the mid-15th century to late 1820s.

Spatharis was born Jan. 3, 1924, and followed his puppet master father, Sotirios Spatharis, into the craft. From his first performance in 1942, he worked until the end of his life, most often as a solitary performer manipulating his puppets behind a small, semitransparent screen.