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1-50 of 656
- 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.- 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.- 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.- 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
- 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).- 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.- 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.- 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.
- 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.- 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.- 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.- 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''.- 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.- 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.- 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.
- 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").- 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
- 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)_.- 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.- 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
- 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.- 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).
- 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".- Katerina Vasilakou was born in 1941 in Aidipsos, Euboea, Greece. She was an actress, known for Megali mou, agapi (1966), Adouloti ratsa (1969) and As me krinoun oi gynaikes (1968). She was married to Thanasis Mylonas. She died on 4 July 2001 in Athens, Greece.