Top 100 Greek Diaspora
[1] People from the Greek diaspora and Greeks that pursued an international career. These artists have primarily lived and worked in USA (65), France (13), United Kingdom (7), Germany (5), Australia (4), Canada (2), Colombia, Denmark, Italy and Lebanon.
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- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Gilles Margaritis was born on 19 March 1912 in Paris, France. He was a writer and producer, known for L'Atalante (1934), La piste aux étoiles (1954) and The Four Musketeers (1953). He was married to Hélène Margaritis. He died on 7 November 1965 in Paris, France.- Additional Crew
- Actor
- Music Department
Academy Award-winning dance director responsible for choreographing several dozen of Hollywood's most truly memorable musicals, including every one of the nine Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers 1930s gems - not to mention Fred and Ginger's screen swan song, The Barkleys of Broadway (1949). He also choreographed some half-dozen of Betty Grable's musicals of the '40s and danced on screen with both Grable and Rita Hayworth.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
The son of a Greek immigrant father (merchant) and an English mother, George Coulouris was educated at England's Manchester Grammar School. As an actor he was quite adept at playing villains, particularly wealthy businessmen, but he was just as suitable at playing nobler roles. A member of Orson Welles' famed Mercury Theater players, he appeared in such films as Citizen Kane (1941), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Papillon (1973) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974). The film that established him as an interesting and reliable heavy, with his massive shoulders and hooded eyes, was Watch on the Rhine (1943).
Coulouris studied with Elsie Fogerty at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. His London stage debut came in 1925 with "Henry V" at the Old Vic. He was soon playing the Yank at the first British staging of Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape". By 1929 he had reached Broadway, via a modern dress version of "Measure for Measure". His role as Tallant in "The Late Christopher Bean" took him to Hollywood in 1933 for MGM's film of the play. The next milestone in his burgeoning career occurred when he was playing in "Ten Million Ghosts" and met Orson Welles. They got on well and Coulouris joined Welles' Mercury Theatre, playing Mark Antony in the famous modern dress production of "Julius Caesar" (1937). When Welles went to Hollywood to make "Citizen Kane", Coulouris climbed into movie history in the part of Walter Parks Thatcher, the Kane family's crotchety lawyer and business manager. By that time his future as a cinema actor was assured and he went on to play character parts in a long string of Hollywood productions throughout the 1940s. At the end of the 1940s Coulouris returned to England, joining the Bristol Old Vic where he was notable as Tartuffe, transferring to London. In the '50s and '60s he remained a stalwart stage actor in spite of his movie reputation. He liked nothing better than to grapple with Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, August Strindberg, Molière or William Shakespeare. During these years he tackled Dr. Stockman in Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People", Patrick Flynn in Sean O'Casey's "The Plough and the Stars", the father in Jean-Paul Sartre's "Altona", Edgar in Strindberg's "The Dance of Death" and Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". All of these are parts to swell a scene and Coulouris had the flourish to fill them, sometimes to overflowing, always compellingly. In Britain his film parts tended towards the mundane, though he rose to the occasion as the native Babalatchi in Carol Reed's Outcast of the Islands (1951) and seized rare chances to play comedy in Doctor in the House (1954), Doctor at Sea (1955) and the Frankie Howerd vehicle The Runaway Bus (1954). Towards the end of his life he tried his hand at writing and produced some charming memoirs describing his early life in Manchester and his early stage experiences. A vivid excerpt was published in the Guardian newspaper in February 1986 and the memoirs are available in full on the official website maintained by his son.- 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.
- Costume Designer
- Production Designer
- Actor
Antoine Malliarakis, aka Mayo, was born in 1905 in Egypt, the son of a Greek engineer and a French mother. Although he kept a Greek passport throughout his life, he was culturally French and lived in France for half of his life after leaving Egypt. He came to France to study architecture but started frequenting artistic circles in the Paris of the roaring twenties and decided to become a painter instead. He made a living decorating cabarets and, later, designing costumes for stage productions, while continuing to paint. In 1944 his friend, writer Jacques Prévert, recommended him as costume designer for the classical period piece "Les Enfants du Paradis". The film was a hit and allowed Mayo to lead a 20-year career in French cinema, designing the costumes (and sometimes the scenery) of several classics. In the meantime, he also worked as art director on many commercials. With the early 60s, and the coming of the "Nouvelle Vague", period pieces became less frequent, and Mayo had less work offers. He ultimately decided to leave movies to concentrate on his paintings. Having moved to Rome, Italy, in the mid-sixties, he finally managed to make a good living with his paintings alone. Unfortunately, in the early eighties, Mayo gradually lost his eyesight. In 1984 he moved back to France and died in 1990, aged 85.- Make-Up Department
- Actor
- Additional Crew
As we look back on the cinematic pioneers of the 20th century, no individual is more significant in his field than genius makeup artist Jack Pierce, the legendary monster-maker who worked in the 1930s and 1940s at Universal Studios during its classic horror period. Pierce's story is equal parts triumph and tragedy. After emigrating to the US from Greece at the turn of the century, he attempted to play baseball, unsuccessfully trying out for a semi-professional team in California after achieving some notoriety as a shortstop in Chicago. He next worked in the fledgling motion picture industry in the 1910s and 1920s, trying his hand at a variety of jobs from nickelodeon manager to stuntman to assistant cameraman. At this time Universal was a nascent little studio in the San Fernando Valley, referred to as "Universal City" in 1915, after only three years in business. The brainchild of former haberdasher Carl Laemmle, Universal was the home to many silent shorts in the 1910s, several of which featured the talents of an unknown actor named Lon Chaney, who got work by creating his own unique makeups, transforming his entire face and body in the process.
Pierce eventually drifted into acting, then makeup, working at Vitagraph and the original Fox Studios in the 1920s. By 1928, after Chaney had left to freelance stardom, Universal made Pierce head of the makeup department, where he worked on the last of the silent films made at the studio. His fortune was cemented when Carl Laemmle made his son, Carl Laemmle Jr., head of production as a 21st-birthday present. Called "Junior" by his peers and colleagues, Laemmle Jr. decided to produce film versions of classic horror novels, encouraged by Chaney's huge successes with The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925) at Universal in the mid-'20s. Laemmle's personal tastes couldn't have been any more fortuitous for Pierce: from 1930-1947 Pierce created some of cinema history's most distinguishable screen characters.
In 1930 Dracula (1931) was first produced, and though Bela Lugosi refused to let Pierce apply his makeup (the actor had come from the stage where he always did his own work), Pierce came up with the styling for the vampire character and his many female victims. Immediately following the success of "Dracula", Junior wanted a follow-up, which led to the production of Frankenstein (1931) in 1931. Though many have argued as to whether director James Whale, actor Boris Karloff or Junior himself contributed to the makeup, the driving force behind the look of the character unquestionably belonged to Jack Pierce. Every morning Karloff sat for four uncomfortable hours, suffering the makeup's high levels of toxicity, as Pierce and his assistants applied the head, facial buildup and layers of padding and costume modifications that would make him into the movies' most memorable monster. For the 43-year-old Karloff and 42-year-old Pierce it was a remarkable achievement--their legend would have been guaranteed even if they had stopped their unique artist-performer collaboration right then and there. Furthering their reputation, though, Pierce and Karloff teamed the following year to create The Mummy (1932). Though the actual creature is only seen for a matter of seconds, it was another unforgettable achievement in cinema horror when "In-Ho-Tep" came alive and paraded across an unearthed Egyptian tomb. Karloff spent most of the picture as "Ardath Bey", another Pierce incarnation, the doomed prince looking for his lost bride.
The Laemmles also tried to get new cinematic treatments of "Phantom of the Opera" and "Hunchback" off the ground at this time. Lon Chaney had died in 1930, but many of their efforts stalled. A version of "The Wolf Man" with Karloff was even planned, but this, too, would be derailed due to production problems. If you can't initiate wholly original projects, why not try a sequel? Universal did just that, starting a trend that would result in numerous Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy spin-offs, which became its trademark.
First on the boards was what would be the final horror film in the Laemmle period, Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Revamping his first version of the monster, Pierce also created the famous makeup and designed the electric hairstyle for Elsa Lanchester's bride. Once again, Pierce created an iconic movie character who only appeared on screen very briefly at the end of the film. Then, in an instance of commerce overwhelming art, the Laemmles sold the studio in 1937, ushering in a series of revolving studio heads at Universal for the next 10 years.
In the many comings and goings of Universal executives in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Pierce did manage to retain his level of high-quality character makeups in several cranked-out sequels and B-movies. For Lugosi, with whom Pierce had locked horns several years earlier on "Dracula", Pierce created "Ygor" in 1939's Son of Frankenstein (1939). Conceived as a man who couldn't be hanged, the bearded, gnarled-toothed wretch became Lugosi's most original character in years and put him back on the map. Two years later Pierce pulled out all the stops for The Wolf Man (1941) with Lon Chaney Jr. in the title role. Though the two reportedly did not get along--Chaney did not like wearing the makeup or undergoing the lengthy application and removal period--Pierce excelled again with his werewolf concept, utilizing a design he had created for Karloff a decade earlier. Originally intended as a B-movie, The Wolf Man (1941) was a true horror classic, and Pierce's version of the character has been the model for the numerous werewolves that have since come to the screen.
The final, original Pierce makeup arrived in 1943 with Phantom of the Opera (1943). Starring Claude Rains (it would be the only Jack Pierce monster movie shot in color). Though his treatment of Claude Rains' makeup--revealed only at the end of the film--was cut down at the request of the producers (Pierce's original concept was considered too hideous!), it stands as another horror movie landmark.
Jack Pierce's reign at Universal ended shortly after WWII when the studio merged with International Pictures and replaced many of its department heads. He had been a makeup supervisor for 19 years and worked at the studio for 30 years, but Pierce ended his career working in low-budget independent films and television projects during the final 20 years of his life. His last project was working as makeup department head for the TV show Mister Ed (1961) from 1961-1964. Unthinkably, he died in virtual obscurity in 1968. However, today's artists still view Pierce's work as a relevant force in the annals of cinema crafts, and Pierce has been honored with a tribute DVD, a lifetime achievement award by the makeup union, and a proposed forthcoming star on Hollywood Boulevard.- Actor
- Soundtrack
When we hear songs like "Rambino" and " Ciao Ciao Bambino" the name of Georges Guétary cames to one's mind. But also as a producer of " Bless the bride", "Latin Quartier" in London and "Arms and the girl" on Broadway, he added light and charm to show business. The last show to celebrate 50 years of perfomances was staged at the Robino's in Paris. He returns to ashes in an orthodox church at Cannes where he was cremated.- Art Department
- Set Decorator
- Actor
Robert Christidès was born on 7 March 1922 in France. He was a set decorator and actor, known for The Samurai (1967), Gauguin the Savage (1980) and Pontcarral, colonel d'empire (1942). He died on 4 May 2005 in Labruyere, France.- Sound Department
- Additional Crew
John P. Livadary was born on 20 May 1896 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]. He is known for Pal Joey (1957), The Men in Her Life (1941) and The Eddy Duchin Story (1956). He died on 7 April 1987 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He directed a string of successful films, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), and East of Eden (1955). During his career, he won two Oscars as Best Director and received an Honorary Oscar, won three Tony Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.
His films were concerned with personal or social issues of special concern to him. Kazan writes, "I don't move unless I have some empathy with the basic theme." His first such "issue" film was Gentleman's Agreement (1947), with Gregory Peck, which dealt with anti-Semitism in America. It received 8 Oscar nominations and three wins, including Kazan's first for Best Director. It was followed by Pinky (1949), one of the first films in mainstream Hollywood to address racial prejudice against black people. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), an adaptation of the stage play which he had also directed, received 12 Oscar nominations, winning four, and was Marlon Brando's breakthrough role. In 1954, he directed On the Waterfront (1954), a film about union corruption on the New York harbor waterfront. In 1955, he directed John Steinbeck's East of Eden (1955), which introduced James Dean to movie audiences.
A turning point in Kazan's career came with his testimony as a witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952 at the time of the Hollywood blacklist, which brought him strong negative reactions from many liberal friends and colleagues. His testimony helped end the careers of former acting colleagues Morris Carnovsky and Art Smith, along with ending the work of playwright Clifford Odets. Kazan later justified his act by saying he took "only the more tolerable of two alternatives that were either way painful and wrong." Nearly a half-century later, his anti-Communist testimony continued to cause controversy. When Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1999, dozens of actors chose not to applaud as 250 demonstrators picketed the event.
Kazan influenced the films of the 1950s and 1960s with his provocative, issue-driven subjects. Director Stanley Kubrick called him, "without question, the best director we have in America, and capable of performing miracles with the actors he uses." On September 28, 2003, Elia Kazan died at age 94 of natural causes at his apartment in Manhattan, New York City. Martin Scorsese co-directed the documentary film A Letter to Elia (2010) as a personal tribute to Kazan.- The possessor of one of stage, screen, radio, TV and audio cassette's most distinguished vocal instruments, actor Alexander Scourby received his training via Shakespearean roles in the 1930s and perfected his vocal versatility on dramatic radio serials in the 1940's.
The noted actor/narrator was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 13, 1913 to Greek immigrants and attended public and private schools in Brooklyn. Father Constantine was a restaurateur and baker Interested in writing, he was a co-editor of his high school magazine and yearbook and studied journalism briefly at University of West Virginia at Morgantown. A passion for acting was sparked after joining a campus theater group. He apprenticed at Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre and made his professional debut in a walk-on in "Liliom.".
"Hamlet" would become a favorite Shakespearean play for Scourby. His very first role on Broadway was as the Player King in a 1936 production starring Leslie Howard and went on to play the same role for Eva Le Gallienne's company later that year. He then played Rosencrantz in Maurice Evans' presentation and went on to appear with Evans in "Henry IV, Part I" and "Richard II" (borth 1940). He played Claudius in still another production (Phoenix) in 1961. Other Broadway plays would include post-WWII presentations of "A Flag Is Born", "Crime and Punishment", "Detective Story", "Darkness at Noon", "Saint Joan" with Uta Hagen, "A Month in the County," "Tovarich" with Vivien Leigh, in which he ably displayed a flair for urbane villainy, and "Old World." He played also played the title role in "Galileo," performed as John Knox in "Vivat! Vivat Regina!" and played Walt Whitman in "A Whitman Portrait."
Scourby first began to develop his speaking prowess in 1937 when he started narrating for the American Foundation for the Blind's Talking Book program. He would wind up recording nearly 500 books for the blind, and, for his long-term contribution, receive the Certificate of Merit from the foundation. His deep, crisp tones suited him well as he moved into radio in 1939. By the early 1940's, he was playing running parts in five of the serial dramas. Included was the voice of Superman's father on that popular radio show.
Scourby made a dashing villainous entry into films rather late in his career (age 39). He received third billing behind "Gilda" stars Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford in the film noir Affair in Trinidad (1952) in which he plays suave, nefarious Max Fabian. He continued in dramatic support with Because of You (1952), Older Brother, Younger Sister (1953) The Glory Brigade (1953) and probably made his next best impression in another film noir again starring Ford and as another villain (crime boss Mike Lagana) in the classic The Big Heat (1953). Later Scourby-featured 50's movies would include The Silver Chalice (1954), Sign of the Pagan (1954), Ransom! (1956) (a third film noir starring Ford), Giant (1956), Me and the Colonel (1958), The Big Fisherman (1959), and the Disney comedy The Shaggy Dog (1959)
As a TV/audio cassette narrator, Scourby had few peers. He would be heard narrating many popular Bible stories for time and has been credited for giving voice of the entire Bible at one point. Classical novel audio cassettes such as "Ship of Fools" and "War and Peace." On TV, he was critically lauded for his distinctive narration on the documentary classic Victory at Sea (1954) and the 70's The Body Human (1977) TV movie documentaries. Scourby also made a host of guest appearances on the popular TV programs from the late 50s throughout the 70's including "The Phil Silvers Show" ("Bilko"), "Shirley Temple's Storybook," "Ellery Queen," "Rawhide," "Bonanza," "The Rifleman," "The Twilight Zone," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "The Defenders, "The Rogues," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Daniel Boone" and "Mannix." "as well as the daytime soapers "Another World" and "General Hospital."
Long married to stage, screen and daytime soap opera actress Lori March, they had a daughter, Alexandra, born in 1944. Scourby died at age 71 of a heart attack on February 22, 1985. - Writer
- Actor
A.I. Bezzerides was born on 9 August 1908 in Samsun, Ottoman Empire [now Turkey]. He was a writer and actor, known for Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) and They Drive by Night (1940). He was married to Von Gorne, Yvonne and Silvia Richards. He died on 1 January 2007 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
George Chakiris made his film debut at the age of 12 singing in the chorus of Song of Love (1947). Following his graduation from high school, he supported his night-time dancing, singing and dramatic lessons with a daytime job clerking in a Los Angeles department store. Later he started his acting/dancing career appearing in musicals such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)--he is one of the ballet dancers escorting Marilyn Monroe in "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend"--White Christmas (1954), The Girl Rush (1955), There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), Brigadoon (1954), and Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956). In 1957, he made his debut as a dramatic actor in Under Fire (1957). In 1958 he traveled to New York hoping for a Broadway "break." Hearing that Jerome Robbins was casting the London company of "West Side Story", he auditioned and was awarded the co-starring role of Riff. He played the part for almost two years on the West End stage before acting, singing and dancing as Bernardo in the Robert Wise film version (West Side Story (1961)), a performance that earned him a Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Since then, he starred in a succession of films, including Diamond Head (1962) with Charlton Heston, Bebo's Girl (1964) with Claudia Cardinale, The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) with Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac and Gene Kelly, The Big Cube (1968) with Lana Turner, Why Not Stay for Breakfast? (1979), Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again (1982), and Pale Blood (1990). He is one of the most traveled stars in motion pictures, having been to such locations as Hawaii, Japan, Mexico, Italy, England, Spain, and France. His nightclub career was launched to rave reviews at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and Harrah's Club in Lake Tahoe. In the 1970s and 1980s, his career focused on television and music. He appeared as guest star in several TV series such as Hawaii Five-O (1968) (Death is a Company Policy - 1972), Wonder Woman (1975) (Death in Disguise - 1978), CHiPs (1977) (Fox Trap - 1983), Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983) (Lost and Found - 1984), Murder, She Wrote (1984) (Weave a Tangled Web - 1989), and he joined the cast of Dallas (1978) from 1985 to 1986. He has released several records: "George Chakiris," "Memories Are Made of These," "The Gershwin Song Book," "West Side Story's Dynamic...". Recently, he has appeared in several plays and stage musicals: after "The King and I" in the US in 1995, he performed in Britain the role of Rochester in "Jane Eyre".- 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.- Stathis Giallelis was born on 21 January 1941 in Greece. He is an actor, known for America America (1963), Happy Day (1976) and Cast a Giant Shadow (1966).
- Actor
- Director
George Devine, the very influential theatrical manager, was born on November 20, 1910 in London to Georgios Devine, who was half-Greek and half-Irish, and the former Ruth Eleanor Cassady, who was Irish-Canadian. He became a member of the famous Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) while reading in history at Oxford, becoming president of OUDS in 1932. He met his future wife, Sophie Devine (aka "Sophie Harris") when OUDS sponsored a production of "Romeo and Juliet", directed by John Gielgud, who had the costumes designed by "The Motley", a London design team that included Sophie and her sister, Margaret. The two married on October 27, 1939 after living together for several years.
After graduating from Oxford, George Devine joined Sophie in London and became an actor, appearing in a number of Gielgud's productions and functioning as The Motley's business manager. He co-founded the London Theatre Studio in 1936 and, in 1939, he became a stage director with an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (1946), starring Alec Guinness. He was in an early BBC television production of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", playing "Sir Toby Belch".
During World War II, he was a member of the Royal Artillery, stationed in India and then Burma. Returning to London after the war, he helped co-found the Old Vic Theatre School and the Young Vic Company, though he was forced to resign in 1948, putting an end to the Young Vic until 1970. The dismissal did not hurt his career as he had established himself as a top director in the theater and in opera. He directed and acted at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon (later renamed the Royal Shakespeare Company).
Tony Richardson, another Oxford graduate, began a collaboration with Devine after casting him in a TV adaptation of "Curtain Down", a short story by Anton Chekhov. Richardson shared Devine's ideas about transforming the English theater, and the two co-founded the English Stage Company. The two wanted to create a theater in which the writer was paramount. In the first draft of his unfinished autobiography, Devine wrote of his mission: "I was not strictly after a popular theater....but a theater that would be part of the intellectual life of the country.... I was convinced the way to achieve my objective was to get writers, writers of serious pretensions, back into the theater. This I set out to do. I wanted to change the attitude of the public towards the theater...."
The company launched its first season in 1956 at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, launching itself with Angus Wilson's "The Mulberry Bush", which was a failure, as were the next two productions. However, the fourth production, John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1959), directed by Richardson, not only was a hit, it was a watershed that revolutionized the English theater, just as Devine and Richardson had set out to accomplish. The Royal Court quickly became the most important theater in the English language for a decade, nurturing the best writers and directors.
"Look Back in Anger" launched the careers of Richardson and Osborne. When Richardson later filmed the Oscar-winning adaptation of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1963), with a screenplay by Osborne, he cast Devine as "Squire Allworthy", Tom's benefactor. Osborne's 1965 play, "A Patriot for Me", was to have a major impact on the English Stage Company and on Devine. The play, which dealt with the blackmailing of the Austro-Hungarian officer "Colonel Redl" (also dramatized in István Szabó's Colonel Redl (1985)), a homosexual and possibly a Jew in a pre-World War One society that was virulently anti-gay and anti-semitic, was opposed by The Lord Chamberlain, the theatrical censor in Britain. The Lord Chamberlain demanded, in exchange for an exhibition license, that the Royal Court make substantial cuts to sanitize it. The cuts would have resulted in the excision of half the play, according to Alan Bates in a B.B.C. interview during a 1983 revival of the play. Osborne and the English Stage Company refused.
Denied a license for public exhibition, The Royal Court Theatre had to be turned into a private club in order to produce the play in London as to produce it legitimately would have been impossible as half the play would have been censored. "A Patriot for Me" won "The Evening Standard" Best Play of the Year award (as would one of his latter plays, "The Hotel in Amsterdam" in 1968), though it was a succès d'estime, as the English Stage Company was taking a heavy loss on the production.
George Devine was appearing in "A Patriot for Me" when he suffered the heart attack that led to his death on January 20, 1966. He was 55 years old.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Melina Mercouri was born in Athens, Greece on October 18, 1920. An early woman activist, she was elected to the Greek Parliament in 1977. Later Miss Mercouri was to become the first woman to hold a Senior cabinet post "Minister of Culture" in the Greek government. In 1971 she wrote her autobiography titled "I Was Born Greek." Melina wed actor Jules Dassin in 1966 and remained married to him until her death in 1994. Melina Mercouri died of lung cancer in New York City, on March 6, 1994.- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Stavros Xarhakos was born on 14 March 1939 in Athens, Greece. He is a composer and actor, known for Koritsia ston ilio (1968), Mighty Aphrodite (1995) and Rembetiko (1983).- Athina Zacharopoulou is known for Signs of Life (1968).
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Costa-Gavras was born on 12 February 1933 in Loutra-Iraias, Greece. He is a director and writer, known for Z (1969), Missing (1982) and Amen. (2002). He has been married to Michèle Ray-Gavras since 1968. They have two children.- 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.- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
This volatile opera diva was born Sophie Cecilia Kalos in New York City to Greek émigrés on December 2, 1923. Her father set up a pharmacy and changed the family name from Kalogeropoulos to Callas. As a child Maria studied the piano. When her parents separated (she was 14 at the time), her mother returned to Athens with Maria and her sister.
The budding singer was quickly accepted into the National Conservatoire where she was taught singing lessons by Maria Trivella. She performed her first recital within the year and in 1939 won a prize for her stage debut in the Conservatoire's production of "Cavalleria Rusticana." In 1941, the soprano dramatico d'agilita made her professional debut in "Boccaccio" with the Lyric Theatre Company. While there she made a semi-name for herself with performances of "Tosca" and "Fidelio."
Impending war led her back to the United States in 1944 where she reclaimed the name of Maria Callas. She was offered a contract from the Met which she turned down because among the three roles she was offered to sing there was Butterfly and she believed that she was too obese to sing the fragile 14 year-old Butterfly, her friends considered her to be crazy turning down the Met while she was so unknown.
Maria performed elsewhere (Chicago, etc.) before returning to Europe in the post-war years where she met Giovanni Battista Meneghini, a wealthy industrialist and avid opera fan. They married in 1949 and he immediately took control of her career. She reached her zenith at La Scala (1951-1958), also recording during that time. In 1956, she finally made her debut at the Met as "Norma" with performances of "Tosca" and "Lucia" following.
Within a couple of years her temperamental outbursts and excessive demands began to rise full force, resulting in a number of dismissals and walkouts. After meeting Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis through her husband, a torrid affair erupted and her marriage ended. Maria gave up the stage in the early 1960s for the jet-set life with Onassis, but continued with occasional concerts. Despite experiencing vocal problems, she made one unforgettable comeback on stage in 1964-1965 when she toured with her personal favorites ("Norma" in Paris and "Tosca" at the Met). Weak and tired, her final curtain on stage rang down in July of 1965 in Covent Garden.
With her career over, she renounced her American citizenship and expected to marry Onassis. But their relationship was a stormy one and it eventually tapered off with Onassis instead marrying Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968. Maria was completely devastated and those around her say she never recovered. The following year she filmed an unsuccessful production of Medea (1969) and eventually set up master classes at Juilliard. In one last comeback, she attempted a European tour of recitals but her voice completely failed her. Her last public performance was on November 11, 1975.
Riddled by sadness and despair, and by now firmly addicted to sleeping pills, Maria turned reclusive in her last year and died of a heart attack in 1977 at age 53. Despite a career that flourished less than two decades, Callas must be respected as one of the more important and recognizable opera legends. She was certainly one of the most emotive and visually dramatic. What also carries her today is, of course, her grandly turbulent and tragic image -- an Édith Piaf of opera.- Actress
- Director
- Soundtrack
Irene Papas was born on 3 September 1929 in Chilimodion, Corinth, Greece. She was an actress and director, known for The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Message (1976) and Electra (1962). She was married to José Kohn and Alkis Papas. She died on 14 September 2022 in Chiliomodion, Corinthia, Greece.- Director
- Editorial Department
- Writer
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
John Cassavetes was a Greek-American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He is considered a pioneer of American independent film, as he often financed his own films.
Cassavetes was born in New York City in 1929 to Nicholas John Cassavetes (1893-1979) and his wife, Katherine Demetre (1906-1983). Nicholas was an immigrant from Greece, while Katherine was Greek-American who had been born in New York City. The Cassavetes family moved back to Greece in the early 1930s, and John learned Greek as his primary language. The family moved back to the United States around 1936, possibly to evade Greece's new dictatorship, the 4th of August Regime (1936-1941). Young John had to learn to speak English. He spent his late childhood and most of his teenage years in Long Island, New York. From 1945-47, he attended the Port Washington High School. He wrote for the school newspaper and the school yearbook. The 18-year-old Cassavetes was then transferred to the Blair Academy, a boarding school located in Blairstown, New Jersey. When the time came for him to start college, Cassavetes enrolled at Champlain College (in Burlington, Vermont) but was expelled owing to poor grades.
After a brief vacation to Florida, Cassavetes enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA), in New York City. Several of his old friends were already students there and had recommended it to Cassavetes, who would be mentored by Don Richardson (1918-1996). After graduating, he began to regularly perform on stage while also appearing in small roles in films and television shows.
Cassavetes's first notable film role was that of Robert Batsford, one of the three villains (along with Vince Edwards and David Cross) in The Night Holds Terror (1955). His next major role was juvenile delinquent Frankie Dane in the crime film "Crime in the Streets" (1956). He won a lead role in Edge of the City (1957) as drifter Axel Nordmann. His co-star for the film was Sidney Poitier, who played stevedore Tommy Tyler. The film helped break new ground, portraying a working-class interracial friendship. Cassavetes gained critical acclaim for his role, and film critics compared him to Marlon Brando. Cassavetes's success as an actor led to his becoming a contract player for MGM. In 1959, he directed his first film, Shadows (1958). It depicted the lives of three African-American siblings in New York City. It won the Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival.
His next directing effort, Too Late Blues (1961), was about the professional and romantic problems of a struggling jazz musician. The film was poorly received at the time, though its autobiographical elements are considered remarkable. Cassavetes then directed A Child Is Waiting (1963), which depicted life in a state institution for mentally handicapped and emotionally disturbed children. The film was a documentary-style portrayal of problems in the social services. It was praised by critics but failed at the box office.
In 1968, Cassavetes had a comeback as a director with Faces (1968), which depicts a single night in the life of a middle-aged married couple. After 14 years of marriage, the two feel rather miserable and seek happiness in the company of friends and the beds of younger lovers, but neither manages to cure their sense of misery. The film gained critical acclaim, and, in 2011, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Cassavetes returned to the theme of a midlife crisis in his next film, Husbands (1970). The film depicts three middle-aged men, professionally successful and seemingly happily married. The death of a close childhood friend reminds them of their own mortality, and of their fading memories of youth. They flee their ordinary lives with a shared vacation to London, but their attempts to rejuvenate themselves fail. This film attracted mixed reviews, with some critics praising its "moments of piercing honesty" and others finding fault with its rambling dialogue.
Cassavetes's next film was Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), about the romantic relationship between a seemingly incompatible couple, jaded museum curator Minnie Moore and the temperamental drifter Seymour Moskowitz. It was well received and garnered Cassavetes a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen. His next film was A Woman Under the Influence (1974), concerning the effects of mental illness on a working-class family. In the film, ordinary housewife Mabel Longhetti starts displaying signs of a mental disorder. She undergoes psychiatric treatment for six months while her husband, Nick Longhetti, attempts to play the role of a single father. But Nick seems to be a social misfit in his own right, and neither parent seems to be "normal". Cassavetes was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for this film, but the award was won by Francis Ford Coppola.
Cassavetes next directed the gritty crime film, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976). In the film, Korean War veteran and cabaret owner Cosmo Vittelli owes a large debt to a criminal organization and is coerced to serve as their hit-man in an assassination scheme. He has been told that the target is an insignificant bookie, but after the assassination Vittelli learns that he just killed a high-ranking crime boss of the Chinese mafia and that he himself is now a target for assassination. The film gained good reviews and a cult following.
His next film, Opening Night (1977), was more enigmatic, mixing drama with horror elements. Protagonist Myrtle Gordon (played by Cassavetes's wife, Gena Rowlands) is a famous actress, but aging and dissatisfied with the only theatrical role available to her. After seeing teenager Nancy Stein, one of her obsessive fans , get killed in a car accident, Myrtle starts having visions of Nancy's ghost. As she keeps fighting the ghost, drinking heavily and chain-smoking, the film ends without explaining what seems to be going wrong with Myrtle's perception of reality. The film was a hit in Europe but flopped in the United States.
Cassavetes had another directing comeback with "Gloria" (1980). In the film, Gloria Swenson (formerly a gangster's girlfriend) is asked to protect Phil Dawn, the young son of an FBI informant within a New York crime family. After the apparent assassination of Phil's parents, Gloria finds herself targeted by gangsters and wanted by the police as a kidnapping suspect. The film won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, and protagonist Gena Rowlands was nominated for several acting awards.
Cassavetes's 11th directing effort was the rather unconventional drama Love Streams (1984), about the relationship between two middle-aged siblings. In the film, Sarah Lawson suffers from depression following a messy divorce and moves in with her brother, Robert Harmon, an alcoholic writer with self-destructive tendencies. Though estranged from his ex-wife and his only son and unable to protect himself from violent foes, in the end Robert finally has someone for whom to care. The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Cassavetes' swan song as a director was the comedy Big Trouble (1986), replacing the much younger Andrew Bergman. The film concerns an insurance agent who needs $40,000 for college tuition for his three daughters. He agrees to cooperate in an insurance scam with the wife of one of his clients, though the plan may require them to murder her husband. Several elements of the film were recycled from the plot of the iconic film noir Double Indemnity (1944), and "Big Trouble" served as its unofficial remake. The film was unsuccessful, and Cassavetes himself reportedly disliked the script.
In the late 1980s, Cassavetes suffered from health problems and his career was in decline. He died in 1989 from cirrhosis of the liver caused by many years of heavy drinking. He was only 59 years old. He is buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles, having left more than 40 unproduced screenplays and an unpublished novel. His son, Nick Cassavetes, eventually used one of the unproduced screenplays to direct a new film, the romantic drama, She's So Lovely (1997). It was released eight years after the death of John Cassavetes, and was well received by critics.