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- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Anna Panayiotopoulou is a famous Greek actress that has starred in many series, films and theatrical plays. She became famous after starring in the Greek series "Madame Sousou" on 1986. A major hit of her career was starring as one of the three Haritou sisters in the Greek hit series "Oi treis harites" during 1990-1992. Another major hit was playing Christina Markatou along with Katiana Balanika playing her friend Sasa Papadima in the Greek series "Dolce Vita" during 1995-1996. She has also starred in major Greek films such as "Safe Sex" on 1999, and "To klama vgike apo ton paradeiso" on 2001.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Jules Dassin was an Academy Award-nominated director, screenwriter and actor best known for his films Rififi (1955), Never on Sunday (1960), and Topkapi (1964).
He was born Julius Samuel Dassin on 18 December 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut, USA. He was one of eight children of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Samuel Dassin and Berthe Vogel. Young Dassin grew up in Harlem, and he attended Morris High School in the Bronx, graduating in 1929. After taking acting classes in Europe, he returned to New York. In 1934, he became and actor with the ARTEF Players (Arbeter Teater Farband), and was a member of the troupe until 1939. Dassin played character roles in Yiddish, mainly in the plays by Sholom Aleichem. But upon discovering "that an actor I was not," he switched to directing and writing. At that time, he joined the Communist Party of the United States, but left the party in 1939, he said, disillusioned after the Soviet Union signed a pact with Adolf Hitler.
Dassin came to Hollywood in 1940, and was an apprentice to directors Alfred Hitchcock and Garson Kanin. In 1941, he made his directorial debut at MGM with adaptation of a story by Edgar Allan Poe. Dassin's best directorial works for Hollywood include such criminal dramas as Brute Force (1947) starring Burt Lancaster; The Naked City (1948), one of the first police dramas shot on the streets of New York; and Night and the City (1950) starring Richard Widmark as a hustler in London who is caught up in his own schemes. While he was assigned by producer Darryl F. Zanuck to make the film, Dassin was accused of affiliation with the Communist Party in his past. Zanuck advised Dassin to "shoot the expensive scenes first, to hook the studio" so the film was finished and released in 1951. Dassin was reported to HUAC in a 1951 testimony by directors Edward Dmytryk and Frank Tuttle. That was enough to sink his career in Hollywood. Dassin was subpoenaed by HUAC in 1952 and eventually became blacklisted after refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
He left the United States for France in 1953 and struggled during his first years in Paris. He was not fluent in French, and his connections were limited. However, Dassin's low-budget film, Rififi (1955), famous for its long heist sequence that was free of dialog, won him the Best Director Award at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. There, he met the Greek actress Melina Mercouri. Later, Dassin co-starred opposite Mercouri in his film Never on Sunday (1960), which won the Best Film Award at Cannes in 1960. At that time, the anti-Communist witch hunt in America was fading, and Dassin was accepted again. He received two Academy Award-nominations for directing and screen-writing for Topkapi (1964), starring Mercouri, Maximilian Schell, and Peter Ustinov. Dassin also served as member of jury at the Cannes and several other international film festivals.
Jules Dassin was married twice. He had three children with his first wife, violinist Beatrice Launer. His son, Joe Dassin, was a popular French singer in the 1960s and '70s, with such hits as "Bip Bip," "L'Eté Indien" and "Aux Champs-Èlysées." In 1966, Jules Dassin married Mercouri, an ardent anti-fascist who lost her Greek citizenship for opposing the junta, and the couple was living in Manhattan, remaining very active in their efforts to restore democracy in Greece during the dictatorship of the Colonels. After 1974, the couple returned to Greece, Mercouri became a member of the Greek Parliament, and Culture Minister of Greece. While living in Athens, Dassin was active in the effort to bring the 2500-year-old Elgin marbles of the Parthenon back to Athens from their current location at the British Museum in London. In this and other humanitarian causes, Dassin followed the last will of his late wife.
Jules Dassin died of complications caused by a flu, on April 1, 2008, at age 96, at Hygeia Hospital in Athens, Greece. He is survived by two daughters and grandchildren.- Actress
- Make-Up Department
- Costume Designer
Mary Tsoni (25 June 1987 - 8 May 2017) was a Greek actress and singer. She was best known for her roles in the films Evil (2005), Dogtooth and Evil: In the Time of Heroes (both 2009). For her role in Dogtooth, she won the award for Best Actress at the Sarajevo Film Festival, and the motion picture itself was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Born in Athens, Tsoni was also the lead singer of a punk band called Mary and The Boy and, prior to her acting career, a make-up artist. Tsoni was found dead in her apartment in Exarcheia, Athens on 8 May 2017, a month before her 30th birthday.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Andréas Voutsinas was born on 22 August 1930 in Khartoum, Sudan. He was an actor and director, known for The Producers (1967), History of the World: Part I (1981) and The Big Blue (1988). He died on 8 June 2010 in Athens, Greece.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Art Department
Spiros Focas is one of Greece's most respected and well-known actors. He was discovered by legendary Italian director Luchino Visconti and cast in a lead role in the classic Rocco and His Brothers (1960). He went on to star in many Greek and Italian films throughout the 1960s and '70s, working with such famous directors as Vincente Minnelli and Ferdinando Baldi. His work in Hollywood includes the hit films The Jewel of the Nile (1985) and Rambo III (1988). His most recent work includes the role of Uncle Telly in 3 Nights in Nisyros (2009).- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Nikos Nikolaidis was born on 25 October 1939 in Athens, Greece. He was a writer and director, known for Morning Patrol (1987), Ta kourelia tragoudane akoma... (1979) and O hamenos ta pairnei ola (2002). He died on 5 September 2007 in Athens, Greece.- Ray Ferrell was born on 24 August 1949 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Zero Hour! (1957), I Love Lucy (1951) and Peck's Bad Girl (1959). He died on 25 August 2006 in Athens, Tennessee, USA.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Michael Cacoyannis was born on 11 June 1922 in Limassol, Cyprus. He was a director and writer, known for Zorba the Greek (1964), Electra (1962) and Eroika (1960). He died on 25 July 2011 in Athens, Greece.- Katina Paxinou was born in 1900, in Piraeus, Greece. She first appeared on stage in 1928, in an Athens production of Henry Bataille's "La femme nue". In the early 1930's she was one of the founding members of the National Theatre of Greece (previously named Royal Theatre) and performed several major roles in Sophocles' "Electra", Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" etc, often co-starring with her husband, Alexis Minotis. The outbreak of the Second World War found her in UK; she later managed to arrive at the US, where she was offered her first film role in 1943 in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). For her superb portrayal of the Spanish revolutionary Pilar in this classic film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel, she won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award and a Golden Globe in 1944. She made a few more Hollywood movies, before returning to Greece in the early 1950's. During 1950 - 1971, some of her great performances were as Jocasta in Sophocles's "Oedipus Rex" (1951, 1952, 1955 and 1958, also staged at that time on Broadway with enormous success), as Countess Rosmarin Ostenburg in Christopher Fry's "The Dark Is Light Enough" (1957), as Clara Zachanassian in Friedrich Dürrenmatt's "The Visit" (1961), as Mary Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" (1965) and in the title roles of Euripides' "Hecuba" (1955) and Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage" (1971). She also starred in some other movies; she was particularly touching as the Italian matriarch in the Luchino Visconti masterpiece Rocco and His Brothers (1960). She died of cancer in 1973 and is justly considered as the greatest Greek actress of the 20th century.
- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Aliki Vougiouklaki was born in 1934 (or 1933, according to some sources), in Maroussi Attikis, Greece. She studied at the Drama School of the Greek National Theater and made her stage debut in a 1953 Athens production of Molière's "Le malade imaginaire". Around the same time she made her movie debut in To pontikaki (1954). The late 1950's was her breakthrough period: she starred in a successful revival of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" (as Eliza Doolittle) and took the leading part in a very popular movie, Maiden's Cheek (1959). She instantly became Greece's most popular star, created her personal stage group (with a repertory including Aristophanes' "Lysistrata", Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth" and Sophocles' "Antigone") and starred in many films, light comedies and melodramas (in many of them she co-starred with Dimitris Papamichael, who was her husband and theater partner during 1965-1974). Her film Ypolohagos Natassa (1970) has been the biggest moneymaker in the history of Greek cinema.- Katerina Ziogou was an actress, known for Dolce Vita (1995), Pappoudes en drasei (2000) and Oi agnoimenoi (1994). She died on 23 February 2020 in Athens, Greece.
- Titos Vandis was born on 7 November 1917 in Thessaloniki, Greece. He was an actor and writer, known for Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), Prosohi, kindynos! (1983) and Dawn on the Third Day (1962). He was married to Nancy Hall, Eleanore Mahlein, Ketty Asprea, Aleka Paizi, Maria Alkaiou and Betty Valassi. He died on 23 February 2003 in Athens, Greece.
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Labros Konstadaras (13 March 1913 - 28 June 1985) was one of the greatest actors of Greek theatre and cinema, excellent both in comedy and drama, with ancestry from Istanbul. He was the brother of actress Mitsi Konstadaras and father of former New Democracy MP Dimitris Konstadaras who gave him two grandchildren, Pavlina in 1974 and Labros in 1979. He was born in Kolonaki Athens and died at "Asklepieion" hospital of Voula Athens. Earlier (1978 and 1983) he had suffered two strokes.
In 1930 he joined, after his family's insistence and without his own will, the non-commissioned Navy School in Corfu, from where he eventually escaped by swimming. He was spared the Court-martial after his family's actions. In 1934 he went to Paris to study goldsmith, in order to take on the family jewelry shop in downtown Athens. He abandoned his studies and did various jobs, until he was discovered by the French Director Louis Zoybe when he played a bit part in a theatrical performance. He studied actor at the theatre "Atene" and in the summer of 1938, he returned to Greece, starting his career.
He served the Greek theatre for 40 years, acting in 191 plays and people still enjoy him through his films (more than 75, mostly comedies). He excelled in roles of the mature, rich and womanizer or "father" of several well-known stars of the era in movies such as "My Daughter, the Socialist", "Some Weary Lads", "A Matter of Earnestness", "Alice in the Navy".
He married in first wedlock actress Julie Georgopoulou in 1945 and in the second Filio Kekatou in 1971. He spent his last years in Varkiza Athens. He is buried in the first cemetery of Athens.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
At the beginning of her career she played several roles at the Greek National Theatre with Katina Paxinou and Alexis Minotis. At the same time she appeared at several movies and she became a star, a protagonist at once. she creates her own personal groups and plays mostly comedy with (1960) great successs.In 1968 she gets married to Kostas Kazakos and they create their own group on stage. They stage plays of Albee (Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf) Ibsen (Hedda Gabler), and the ancient Greek tragics Sophocles (Electra, Oedipus Rex), Euripides (Medea). Her last appearence on stage was at Loula Anagnostakis (a female Greek author) play "Diamonds and Blues".- Writer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Nikos Panayotopoulos was born on November 6, 1941, in Mytilene, Greece. He studied film making in Athens and started his career as an assistant director in Greek and foreign productions.
In 1960-1973 he lived in Paris where he attended film courses at the filmology institute of Sorbonne.
In 1973 he returned to Athens. His first film The Color of Iris (1974) ("The Colours of Iris") was the most unexpected creation of the New Greek Cinema. Since then he lived and worked there, and his beloved wife Marianna Spanoudakis, always by his side, participated faithfully in all of his productions, mainly as a costume designer and also as producer and actress. Since 1974 he wrote and directed films, with a special narrative style in a thematic approach that deals with issues such as erotic delusion and deterioration of human relations.
His films have participated in national and international festivals and have received important distinctions and prizes.
His death came just a few weeks after the release of his film I kori tou Rembrandt (2015) ("Rembrandt's Daughter").- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Kostas Voutsas was born in Athens, in 1931. He studied at the Drama School of the Macedonian Conservatory of Thessaloniki and made his stage and screen debut in 1953. His breakthrough came in 1961, when Giannis Dalianidis gave him a key part in his phenomenally successful youth melodrama Spoiled Rotten (1961). He soon became one of the best and most popular comic actors of his generation and created personal groups, starring in many Greek comedies by top play-writers and classics like Aristophanes' "Sfikes" (as Philokleon), Molière's "Le bourgeois gentilhomme" (title role) etc. He also starred in about 60 movies, mostly comedies and musicals of the 'golden era' of Greek commercial cinema and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 1984.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Thanasis Vengos was born in 1927 in Neo Faliro, Piraeus, Greece. He made his movie debut in 1952 and played many supporting parts in films of the 1950s, often working as a technician, too. His first really major part was in the anti-war comedy Psila ta heria Hitler (1962); he followed that with a long series of comedies, which made him extremely popular. He created the recognizable persona of the everyday man who keeps running to earn his daily bread. His best roles often have a tragic dimension, as the anti-heroes he played in the commercial and artistic hits Ti ekanes ston polemo Thanasi (1971) and Enas xenoiastos palaviaris (1971).But he was also fine in purely dramatical roles, as in It's a Long Road (1998). He also did some interesting stage work, starring in ancient (Aristophanes' "Peace" and "Acharneis") and modern Greek comedies (Giorgos Lazaridis' "O trellos tou Luna-park").- Panos Natsis was born on 3 January 1991 in Athens, Greece. He was an actor, known for 3000 (2016), Role Play: The Movie (2017) and Serres (2022). He died on 29 January 2022 in Athens, Greece.
- Music Department
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Artemios "Demis" Ventouris-Roussos was a Greek Egyptian then his family migrated to Greece and he became a Greek vocalist and performer who had an internationally acclaimed career, as a single recording artist and bandleader. As a band member he is best remembered for his work in the progressive rock music act Aphrodite's Child, but as a vocal soloist, his repertoire included hit songs like ''Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye'', ''From Souvenirs to Souvenirs'' and ''Forever and Ever''.- Anna Synodinou was born on 21 November 1927 in Loutraki, Greece. She was an actress, known for The 300 Spartans (1962), Ilektra (1962) and Dollars and Dreams (1956). She was married to George Marinakis. She died on 7 January 2016 in Athens, Greece.
- Actor
- Director
Alekos Alexandrakis was born in 1928, in Athens, Greece. He studied at the Drama School of the Greek National Theater and made his stage debut in a 1949 Athens production of Daphne Du Maurier's "Autumn Tide". He soon became one of the best actors of his generation, appearing in Euripides' "Hippolytus" (title role), Ivan Turgenev's "A Month in the Country" (as Mikhail Alexandrovitz Rakitin), Sophocles' "Electra" (as Orestis), Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite" (as Jessie, Sam and Roy) and many other plays. He made his screen debut in 1949 and appeared in more than 60 films, proving himself equally adequate in comedy and drama. He also directed two interesting neorealist films in the early 1960's, Thriamvos (1962) and A Neighborhood Named 'The Dream' (1961).- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Studied at Konstantinos Michailidis Drama School
He became really famous during the 80's with many films he participated with actress and very close friend, Kaiti Finou.
Since March 14, 2017 he was hospitalized in "Aghios Savvas" hospital diagnosed with cancer, and since Easter Sunday he had been intubated in the intensive care unit of that hospital, having deteriorated. He passed away at the age of 66, on April 21, 2017 at 14:25. Close to him remained his second wife Christina Psalti and his daughter from the first marriage.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Rika Vagiani was born in 1962. She was an actress and writer, known for Peraste... filiste... teleiosate! (1986), Tranzito (1995) and Stakaman! (2001). She died on 7 August 2018 in Athens, Greece.- Sotiris Moustakas was born on 17 September 1940 in Lemessos, Cyprus. He was an actor, known for An itan to violi pouli... (1984), Athina, i klopi tis odou Stadiou (1968) and O Tsitsiolinos (1987). He was married to Maria Bonelou and Maria Bonellou. He died on 4 June 2007 in Athens, Greece.
- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Rena Vlahopoulou was born in 1923 in Corfu, Greece. She was an actress and producer, known for The Girl from Corfu (1956), A Greek Woman in the Harem (1971) and I Rena einai 'off-side' (1972). She was married to Giorgos Lafazanis, Giannis Kostopoulos and Kostas Vasileiou. She died on 29 July 2004 in Athens, Greece.- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Mikis Theodorakis was born in the Greek island of Chios, in 1925. It was the same year that the other great composer of Greece was born in Xanthi, Manos Hatzidakis. He fought during the 2nd World War, and was captured at the city of Tripoli. He was tortured, but when he was set free, he joined the partisan army of Greece named EAM, which means National Liberating Movement. He took part in the civil war in Greece which occurred during 1945-1949, always with the left parties of Greece. He was exiled for the first time in the island of Ikaria in 1947, he was transferred to the island of Makronisos in 1948.
He married Myrto Altinoglou, five years later in 1953, and one year later he moved in Paris in order to continue his studies in music. He composed continuously during the following years using some of the most wonderful poems in order to express the people of Greece. After Lamprakis, a Parliamentary representative was murdered, Theodorakis became a member of the Parliament and the number one enemy of the Right parties of Greece.
The great composer didn't not stop expressing his need and hope for democracy even when military dictator Georgios Papadopoulos took power in Greece in 1967. Some months later the military dictatorship decides that he is not 'welcome' in his own country, he was exiled for one more time. Great personalities express their support to this great composer, like Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Miller etc.
He became internationally famous when he composed the music for the film Zorba the Greek (1964), directed by Michael Cacoyannis and starring Anthony Quinn. But he was becoming very popular even before that film, when he was composing music for the Jules Dassin film Phaedra (1962) starring Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone, and Kakogiannis' Electra (1962) starring Irene Papas, Aleka Katselli. He even composed music for such acclaimed films like Z (1969) by Costa-Gavras starring Yves Montand and Papas, and Serpico (1973) by Sidney Lumet starring Al Pacino. He came back in 1974, but he stayed only for 6 years. Theodorakis was dissatisfied and went back in Paris and finished his third big work, Canto General, which together with the music from the film Zorba the Greek (1964) and "Axion Esti," a piece of work based on the poems of the Nobel winner poet Odysseas Elitis.
During the '80s, he became for one more time member of the Parliament and issue of controversy in the beginning of the 90s, when he collaborated with the right party's prime minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis. In 1992, he composed the Canto Olympico for the Olympic Games of Barcelona.
His opera Ilektra gained very good reviews, in Luxemburg, the Capital City Of Europe in 1995. He composed also another opera of Lysistrati for the Olympic Games of Athens in 2004. Although, he created controversies with his actions during the last decades, 1980-1990, Mikis Theodorakis was one of the greatest composers of Greece, and created the modern music of Greece together with Manos Hadjidakis.- Nikos Kourkoulos was born in 1934, in Athens, Greece. He studied acting at the Drama School of the Greek National Theater and made his stage debut in a 1958 Athens production of Alexandre Dumas fils's "La dame aux camélias", opposite Ellie Lambeti and Dimitris Horn. He was one of the founders of the prestigious stage group Proskinio and appeared in the 1967 Broadway musical "Ilya Darling", with Melina Mercouri. He created his personal group in the early 1970's, with a repertory which included, among others, Franz Kafka's "The Trial", Arthur Miller's "View from the Bridge" and Bertolt Brecht's "The Beggar's Opera". His last stage appearance to date was in the title role of Sophocles' "Philoktitis" (1991); he then became artistic director of the Greek National Theater. His film career has been equally successful: he starred in many films from the late 1950's until the early 1980's. His most commercial films have been melodramas with a social background, like Oratotis miden (1970).
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Born in 1913 (or 1915, according to some sources), in Alexandria, Egypt, but raised in Marseille, France. His family moved in Athens in 1935. He studied acting at the Drama School of Giannoulis Sarantidis and made his stage debut in a 1944 Athens production of Leo Lenz's "Lady I Love You." In 1946, he became a stage sensation starring opposite Marika Kotopouli in Carlo Goldoni's "A Servant of Two Masters" (as Truffaldino). He never left the stage for the next fifty years, appearing with great success in ancient (Aristophanes' "Thesmophoriazouses") and modern Greek comedies (Dimitris Psathas' "Thanasakis o politevomnenos", Alekos Sakellarios' and Hristos Giannakopoulos' "O filos mou o Lefterakis"), musicals ("Irma la Douce", "Some like It Hot") etc. He also became one of the all-time greats of the Greek cinema, starring in about 90 films. He died of lung infection in 2001.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Kostas Kazakos was born in 1935, in Pyrgos Ilias, Greece. He studied at the Drama School of "Theatro Technis" under the supervision of Carolos Koun. He made his stage debut in 1957 and then collaborated with many serious stage groups. He also played supporting roles in some films. But his real breakthrough came in 1967, when he was offered the lead in the film Kontserto gia polyvola (1967), opposite Jenny Karezi. He married Karezi in 1968 and they created their own stage company; their repertory included, among others, Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (in which he played George), Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" (title role) and Euripides' "Medea" (in which he played Jason). He also starred in a few more movies, including the widely acclaimed _Iphigenia (1977)_. After Karezi's death (in 1992), he continued his stage activity; he won raves for his work in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman".- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Alekos Sakellarios was a Greek writer and a director. He was born in Athens and grew up in Agios Panteleimonas and began to study journalism and acting at a young age. He wrote his first theatrical play in 1935 called The King of Halva. He entered the film industry and had roles in both screenwriting and directing. He directed mainly with Hristos Giannakopoulos and together they wrote and produced an estimated 140 works. The most popular include: The Germans Strike Again, Thanasakis o politevomenos, I theia ap' to Chicago, Dikoi mas anthropoi, Ena votsalo sti limni, Kalos ilthe to dollario, Ta kitrina gantia, Otan leipei i gata, I soferina, Laterna, ftoheia kai filotimo, Alimono stous neous and more. Many of these theatrical plays were transferred to the cinema with notable success. He also wrote the lyrics of many songs (over 2,000). The significant journalist Freddie Germanos called him the "most clever Greek of the 20th century". He died in 1991 and is buried in the First Cemetery of Athens in a family grave.- Bob Behling was born on 16 June 1944 in Franklin, Washington. He was an actor, known for Island of Death (1976), Naked in the Snow (1974) and The Hook (1976). He died on 14 November 1977 in Athens, Greece.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
The names of Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis have been written with golden letters in the music history of Greece since 1960. He was born in Xanthi on 23 October 1925, in a mid-class family. When he came of age he came in the capital city of Greece of Athens. He succeeded from the beginning when he made the high class of Greece to accept the Rebetiko, a popular kind of music. His love for this great music resulted in two great LP's - 'Lilacs On The Dead Earth', and 'Cruel April Of 45'.
He worked with director Karolos Koun and he wrote excellent music for such plays as 'A Streetcar Named Desire', starring Melina Mercouri and Vasilis Diamantopoulos. From this collaboration a great classic song resulted, named 'Paper Moon-Xartino To Feggaraki'. He also wrote music for the Greek National Theatre.
In the following years Hadjidakis created a personal style which no one can forget. He wrote music for films like Stella (1955), Madalena (1960), Maiden's Cheek (1959), I Aliki sto Naftiko (1961), creating massive successes. The first golden disc was given to Manos and Aliki Vougiouklaki for the song "The Grey Cat (To grizo gati)" from the film "To xylo vgike apo ton Paradeiso".
He gained worldwide popularity with his collaboration with Melina Mercouri and Jules Dassin in 1960 for the film Never on Sunday (1960), and he even won an Oscar. He wrote music for other international films like Elia Kazan's America America (1963), Andrew Marton's It Happened in Athens (1962), Dassin's Topkapi (1964), Peter Ustinov's Memed My Hawk (1984).
In 1963 he staged "A Street Of Dreams (Odos Oneiron)", with Minos Argyrakis, which was considered a milestone in Greek Theatre. In the later years, he humorously denied "Never On Sunday's" popularity and tried to produce more sophisticated works with the help of the poet and lyricist Nikos Gatsos. He became one of best Greek composers, and together with Mikis Theodorakis they are the founders of the temporary Greek Music.
During 1966-1972 he lived in the United States where he wrote the "Magnus Eroticus" LP, which was poems of ancients and temporary poets like Sapfo, Odysseas Elytis, Myrtiotissa etc. He also produced instrumental LP's, like the excellent "The smile of Jokonda". Manos was great friend of persons like Seferis, Elytis (2 Nobel winners poets), Sikelianos, Gatsos (poets), Vougiouklaki (actress), Koun (director), Melina Mercouri (actress, politician), with which they did have a love-hate relationship.
He wrote 4 books and he created the Orchestra Of Colours (I Orhistra ton Hromaton), for some years he was the director of the 3rd program of the Greek Radio channel.
Manos Hadjidakis died on June 15 1994, a lovely summer afternoon. He was one of the greatest composers of Greece, and he is surely missed.- Dionyssis Papayannopoulos was born in 1912, in Diakofto, Greece. He studied at the Drama School of the National Theater of Greece, where he made his stage debut in 1938, appearing (as the Knight) in Shakespeare's "King Lear". During the next two decades he collaborated with many prestigious stage groups, excelling in, among others, Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (as the Grave-digger) and Dimitris Psathas' "Fonazei o kleftis" (as Solon Karaleon).
In 1961 he created his own stage group and gave memorable performances in a series of modern Greek comedies, like Gerasimos Stavrou's "Zito i zoi" and Asimakis Gialamas and Costas Pretenderis' "Despinis Diefthindis" (as Mr. Vassiliou - a role he repeated in the 1964 film version, opposite Jenny Karezi). He was also very good in Iakovos Kampanellis' "To megalo mas tsirko" (as Kolokotronis, Venizelos and Karagiozis).
His film work has been prolific, too: he appeared in about 120 films, usually in scene-stealing supporting parts. One of his few starring film roles was as the kind-hearted tavern-keeper in _Kyr-Giorgis ekpedevetai, O (1977)_. He died of a stroke in 1984. - Actor
- Director
- Producer
Alexis Minotis was born on 8 August 1898 in Canea, Greece. He was an actor and director, known for The Chase (1946), Land of the Pharaohs (1955) and Notorious (1946). He was married to Katina Paxinou. He died on 11 November 1990 in Athens, Greece.- Actor
- Production Manager
- Soundtrack
Nikos Rizos was a Greek actor. He took part in many Greek comedies in cinema. He and his wife Elsa had one son. Rizos began his career with "Anthropoi, anthropoi" in 1948 at the Metropolitan Theatre. He founded his own company in 1959 which he co-ran from 1961 with Vasilis Avlonitis and Georgia Vasileiadou. He appeared in various comedies in Greece and Germany, performing for the immigrant Greeks abroad. In 1986, he appeared at the Astor Theatre on Stadiou Street which he ran from the artistic performance until 1990. Rizos changed and he was a theatrical entrepreneur for 27 years. He starred in around 200 comedy films including The Taxi Driver (1953), The Dead Man's Treasure (1959), O Klearhos, i Marina kai o kontos (1961), Symmoria eraston (1972), and others. On television, he starred alongside Martha Karagianni in O dromos (1977). In 1999, he appeared in the television series of Tasos Athanasiadis's I aithousa tou thronou (1998). It was his last appearance on television. Rizos' last years were spent in Gyzi. He suffered a heart attack on 20 April 1999 and died in an Athens hospital from edema. He was 74 years old. He is buried at Athens First Cemetery.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Takis Emmanuel was born in 1933 in Greece. He was an actor and producer, known for Levkas Man (1981), Kostas (1979) and Caddie (1976). He died on 26 August 2017 in Athens, Greece.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Dimitris Horn was born in 1921, in Athens, Greece. His father was Pantelis Horn, a well-known Greek playwright. He studied at the Drama School of the National Theater of Greece, where he made his stage debut in 1941. He collaborated with the National Theater many times in his career, but also made personal stage groups with famous actors, like Mary Aroni, Alekos Alexandrakis and Ellie Lambeti, who also was his life companion for some years (1953 - 1958). He soon established a reputation as the best actor of his generation, giving solid performances in such classics as Nikolay Gogol's "The Diary of a Madman" (title role), William Shakespeare's "Richard III" (title role), Molière's "Don Juan" (title role), Luigi Pirandello's "Henry IV" (title role) etc. Equally important was his screen work; he starred in only 10 films, but most of them have attained legendary status, like The Counterfeit Coin (1955) and A Girl in Black (1956). He died in 1998, but will always be fondly remembered as the "jeune premier par excellence" of the Greek stage and screen.- Writer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Stavros Tsiolis was born on 6 October 1937 in Tripoli, Greece. He was a writer and director, known for Please, Ladies, Don't Cry (1992), Akatanikitoi erastes (1988) and Erotas sti hourmadia (1990). He died on 23 July 2019 in Athens, Greece.- Elena Nathanael was born in Athens, the daughter of a well-off textile designer and manufacturer. Her impressive good looks got her noticed by producers and directors of the, then-blooming, Greek commercial cinema of the mid-sixties. After studying drama at the Pelos Katselis Drama School, Elena got her first screen part in the 1963 movie Kati na kaiei (Something burning), directed by Yiannis Dalianides. Her second screen role came in 1965 in the German movie Walsungenblunt, directed by Rolf Thiele and based on a Thomas Mann novel. A few more parts followed in Greek movies of the late sixties, usually in the Athenian spoilt rich girl mould. In 1968 she got a best actress award at the Salonica film festival for her part in the movie Randevou me mia agnosti (Rendez-vous with a stranger). In the early seventies she established her screen persona (that of a free-spirited, beautiful young woman) and became something of a fashion icon but with the abrupt decline of the Greek commercial cinema in 1973 her career came to a halt. After a seven year absence she made a comeback of sorts with a number of straight-to-video movies, usually light comedies. Her last role worthy of her beauty and acting abilities was that of Julia in the hugely successful Thornbirds spin-off TV soap, Aggigma psyhis, in 1998.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Kostas Tsakonas was born in Athens (1943) and went to Leonidas Trivizas Drama School and Beaki School. His first on screen appearance was on a short film by Kostas Zirinis. A great comedy actor mostly for his work in 80s and 90s greek VHS movies. Greatly loved among the greek people for his genuine humor.- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
James Paris was born in 1921 in Mitilini, Greece. He was a producer and writer, known for NO (1969), Persecution (1964) and Lesviakos Avgoustos (1974). He died on 26 May 1982 in Athens, Greece.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Mimis Fotopoulos was the son of Nikolaos Fotopoulos and Anna Papadopoulos. He was born in Zatouna of Gortynia on April 20, 1913. Zatouna is a small village, 4 km away from Dimitsana, at 1,050 meters altitude. His father died when Mimis was young. The young Fotopoulos preferred to study at the Faculty of Philosophy in Athens, but, in the second year, he left it to study theater at the Drama School of the Royal Theater, which was later renamed the National Theater, as we know it today. He took part in the Greek Resistance and married Margarita Tsala, from whom he had two daughters, Anna and Maria. He participated in various troupes until he made his own troupe. He played in travelling troupes, toured abroad, participated in many Greek films, mainly of the old Greek cinema, wrote plays and books, directed in the theater. He wrote the plays "A Girl at the Window" (1966) and "Pelopidas the Good Citizen" (1976). He published three books: "25 years of theater" (1958), "The river of my life", published by Kastaniotis, 1965, autobiographical, and "El Daba-Homer of the English", published by Modern Times, 1965. Finally, the poetry collections: "Bouloukia" (1940), "Semitonia" (1960), "Sklira trioleta" (1961), "The Death of the days" (1976), "Ballads of love and death" (1984) His wife had been exiled to Gyaros during the junta, when he was left alone with his two daughters. At that time he decided to make paintings with collage of stamps. This was another artistic activity, not so well known by Mimis Fotopoulos. He died on October 29, 1986, of a sudden heart attack.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Kostas Hatzihristos was born in 1921 in Salonica, Greece. He was an actor and director, known for Thimios in the Land of Striptease (1963), Who Will Pay for the Marble? (1956) and World Gone Mad (1963). He was married to Ketty Diridaoua and Eleni Pantazi. He died on 3 October 2001 in Athens, Greece.- Linda Giga was born in 1964. She was an actress, known for The Jerks (1987), Adelfi mou... agapi mou (1986) and O protaris batsos kai i troteza (1989). She died on 10 July 2016 in Athens, Greece.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Vasiliadou was born in 1897, in Athens, Greece. Her real name was Georgia Athanasiou. She was obliged to leave school early and work as a shop girl, in order to help her family. She made her stage debut in 1918, but began her studies at the Gennadeios Phonetic School in 1923 and appeared in some operas. She then worked with the major theater companies of the period (Kyveli , Marika Kotopouli, Dimitris Myrat), playing a wide range of parts. In the mid-1930s she decided to retire, but Alekos Sakellarios offered her a small part in the 1939 musical comedy "Koritsia tis pantreias"; that was the genesis of a second career for the middle-aged actress, who went on to star in many comedies and revues and created personal stage groups until the late 1960s. She also made a tentative movie debut in 1930, but became one of the all-time greats of the Greek cinema during the 1950s, when she starred in extremely popular comedies like I oraia ton Athinon (1954), in which Nikos Tsiforos played with her unconventional external appearance, and The Auntie from Chicago (1957), in which director-writer Alekos Sakellarios cast her as a wealthy Greek-American who returns to Greece after thirty years and brings a fresh lifestyle to the family of her conservative brother. She died in 1980, but is always fondly remembered by Greek audiences.- Producer
- Production Designer
Elvira Ralli was born on 15 June 1926 in Greece. She was a producer and production designer, known for Ekeines & ego (1996), Eros kai pathos (1994) and Kostis Palamas (1993). She was married to Giorgos Rallis. She died on 20 April 2009 in Athens, Greece.- Director
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Vassilis Georgiadis was a Greek director, film producer and actor. Two of Georgiadis's films, "The Red Lanterns" and "Blood on the Land", were nominated by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the final five for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Also in 1970 his film "Girls in the Sun" was nominated by the Foreign Correspondents' Association in Los Angeles for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.- Giorgos Pappas was born in 1903 in Athens, Greece. He was an actor, known for Forgotten Faces (1946), The Man on the Train (1958) and The Other (1952). He died in 1958 in Athens, Greece.
- Actor
- Writer
Minas Hatzisavvas was born on 28 January 1948 in Athens, Greece. He was an actor and writer, known for Worlds Apart (2015), U-Turn (1991) and I zoi enamisy hiliariko (1995). He died on 30 November 2015 in Athens, Greece.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Yannis Fertis was born in Athens, in 1938. He studied at the Drama School of "Theatro Technis" under the supervision of Carolos Koun and made his stage debut in 1959. His breakthrough stage role was Chance Wayne in an Athens 1960 production of Tennessee Williams "Sweet Bird of Youth" opposite Melina Mercouri; he became a major theater actor and created personal groups, collaborating with Xenia Kalogeropoulou, who was his wife during 1965 - 1976, and other important actors and directors. His stage work includes Tchekhov's "The Seagull" (as Trepliev), Ibsen's "Ghosts" (as Oswald),Molière's "Don Juan" (title role) etc. He also starred in several TV series and films; his best screen role is the innocent young hero of _Zestos minas Avgoustos(1966)_.