Melina Mercouri
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Notes
"She has a very aggressive sexuality, which is rare in a female film star. It's almost masculine. She's always been rather emancipated--she knows what she wants and she knows how to get it." --British journalist Peter Aspden quoted in Vanity Fair, February 1991.
"Even today Melina Mercouri is the quintessential champagne socialist. Her baths are drawn by servants, her clothes laid out. During the mayor's race she voted in Armani." --Maureen Orth in "'La Pasionaria' of the Acropolis" in Vanity Fair, February 1991.
Biography
Fiery, smoky-voiced Greek stage and screen actress with green eyes and natural blonde hair, adept at both drama and comedy. Melina Mercouri was in many ways a parallel figure to stars ranging from Hollywoodites Susan Hayward and Joan Crawford to Italy's Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani, with a star persona manifesting an outsize personality, a penchant for melodrama and a riveting lust for life. An established stage performer by the early 1950s, she made her film debut as a free-living bouzouki cafe singer in 1955 in Michael Cacoyannis' Greek-language film, "Stella," which was expressly written for her. Mercouri achieved international stardom with a number of features directed by the expatriate American director Jules Dassin, whom she married in 1966 and with whom she collaborated on nine films. Among these, audiences probably best remember Mercouri's delightful, performance as a sentimental, happy-go-lucky prostitute in her signature film, "Never on Sunday" (1960). She also brought her volatile screen persona to "Phaedra" (1961), an old-fashioned star vehicle disguised as updated Greek mythology, and was suitably tongue-in-cheek in the enjoyable caper escapade, "Topkapi" (1964) and middling spy adventure, "A Man Could Get Killed" (1966).
Long a political activist who sought to symbolize the soul of Greek national identity, Mercouri lived an off screen life as adventurous as any torrid melodrama she enacted onscreen. An outspoken woman of principle, she was expelled from Greece by the notorious Colonels' Junta in 1967 but eventually returned in 1974 and won a parliamentary seat for the Socialist party in 1977. Mercouri's acting career gradually abated as she become increasingly involved in politics, but she did appear onstage in her native land as well as on Broadway in "Ilya, Darling" (1967-68). She also continued acting in occasional international films, including the trashy "Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough" (1975). Mercouri later became the flamboyant and controversial Greek Minister of Culture and Sciences and gained her greatest attention in that capacity when she successfully lobbied for the return of the Elgin Marbles, classical sculptures which the British Museum had removed from the Parthenon in the 19th century. Mercouri later ran unsuccessfully for the office of Mayor of Athens in 1990 while still retaining her seat in Parliament and returned to her ministerial job in October of 1993, not long before her death from lung cancer complications. For both her acting achievements on stage and screen and for her zestful commitment to Greek art and politics, Mercouri was justly mourned as a national heroine.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Life Events
1944
Made stage debut
1954
Appeared on Greek stage in "Stella"
1955
Film debut in Michael Cacoyannis's "Stella", Mercouri's only film in Greek
1955
First met Jules Dassin at the Cannes Film Festival where "Stella" was screened
1957
First film with director Dassin, "He Who Must Die"
1960
Breakthrough film, "Never on Sunday"
1967
Greek citizenship revoked; restored in 1974
1967
Left Greece during the reign of the Colonels' Junta; her films and songs were banned and a warrant was issued for her arrest; eventually lost her Greek citizenship
1967
Broadway musical debut, "Ilya, Darling"; received a Tony nomination as Best Actress in a musical; after Colonels' Junta, made a spech onstage about what was happening in Greece
1972
Starred on Broadway in "Lysistrata"
1974
Regained Greek citizenship
1974
Lost bid for seat in Greek Parliament by a narrow margin
1977
Elected member of Greek Parliament for the Port of Piraeus
1989
Diagnosed with lung cancer
1990
Lost her bid to become Mayor of Athens with a 46% of the local vote
1993
Returned to her post as Minister of Culture in October
1994
Underwent surgery in February to remove a small tumor from her right lung; complications set in
Photo Collections
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
"She has a very aggressive sexuality, which is rare in a female film star. It's almost masculine. She's always been rather emancipated--she knows what she wants and she knows how to get it." --British journalist Peter Aspden quoted in Vanity Fair, February 1991.
"Even today Melina Mercouri is the quintessential champagne socialist. Her baths are drawn by servants, her clothes laid out. During the mayor's race she voted in Armani." --Maureen Orth in "'La Pasionaria' of the Acropolis" in Vanity Fair, February 1991.
