Trivia

She was a dear friend of Katharine Hepburn, with whom she starred in The Trojan Women (1971). Hepburn once said that she is "one of the best actresses in the history of cinema".

She has no intention of returning to Greece to play in theatre, because she has suffered from continuous negative criticisms. She starred as the Greek heroine of 1821 (when Greece fought the Turks) in the film Bouboulina (1959). She was a personal friend of the Greek prime minister Andreas Papandreou.

Owned houses in Greece, Spain and Italy.

Fluent in Greek, English, French and Italian.

Confirmed in an interview that she had an affair with Marlon Brando, a close friend until his death.

In 2018 it was announced she had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for the past five years.

Irene Papas appeared with Anthony Quinn in 7 films starting as far back as 1954. The films are Attila (1954), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Zorba the Greek (1964), A Dream of Kings (1969), the Mexican-produced, filmed-in-Rome short film El asesinato de Julio César (1972), The Message (1976) and Lion of the Desert (1980).

She was named "Europe's woman", a title given to women who offer a lot to European civilization. In her speech, she sang a Greek folklore song. (2002)

Federico Fellini was a huge admirer of her work.

Like the other Greek actress of international fame, Melina Mercouri, she has recorded some records (now available as CDs), which have gained the status of classics in Greece and are very popular around the Greek Orthodox Easter. The names of the records are 'Odes' and 'Rapsodies', containing 15 traditional songs and hymns of the Greek Orthodox church. The songs and hymns have been re-arranged by the Oscar-winning composer Vangelis. She has also recorded songs of Mikis Theodorakis, but this particular record has been out of stock for many decades, although it had been said that it would be published in 2004 again.

She was discovered by Elia Kazan.

Starred in two different versions of "The Odyssey": Odissea (1968) as Penelope, and The Odyssey (1997) as Anticleia.

She denied having any secret to acting with such energy, but said that one's attitude to death was what drove action. Death was in her view "the greatest catalyst in human life"; while waiting to die, one had to decide what to do with one's life.

Member of the Anna-Marie Foundation's board of directors along with members of the Greek royal family.

Festival tribute at the Créteil International Women's Film Festival, France. (2000)

Aunt of Manousos Manousakis.

Provided the (somewhat breathless) vocals on track 5 disc 2 (named only with a infinity symbol) of the Aphrodite's Child 1971 concept album "666", music for which was composed by Vangelis Papathanassiou. The keyboards on the album were played by Vangelis and the bass and some of the vocals were played and sung by Demis Roussos.

Member of the Communist Party of Greece.

She appeared in four films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in the 1960s alone: The Guns of Navarone (1961), Zorba the Greek (1964), Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) and Z (1969).

Her mother, Eleni Prevezanou, was a schoolteacher, and her father, Stavros Lelekos, taught classical drama at the Sofikós school in Corinth.

Aunt of Aias Manthopoulos.

In 1991, she was scheduled to appear in David Lean's adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Nostromo. Lean's death in April 1991 brought the project to an end.

Franco Zeffirelli planned to cast Irene Papas in Jesus of Nazareth (1977) as the Virgin Mary with an unknown Tunisian girl to be chosen to enact the character's younger years, Papas being close to 50 at the time. However, Zeffirelli decided to have twenty-five-year-old Olivia Hussey play Mary throughout the series. Had Zeffirelli cast Papas, she would have had back-to-back roles as female lead in screen bios of two of the world's most revered religious leaders, having just played Hind bint Utba in The Message (1976), a biopic of Mohammed. She later played the Blessed Virgin in Un bambino di nome Gesù (1990).

In 1973, she was honoured with a photo shoot by the Magnum photographer Ferdinando Scianna.

Her career awards include the Golden Arrow Award in 1993 at Hamptons International Film Festival, and the Golden Lion Award in 2009 at the Venice Biennale.

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