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- 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
- 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.- 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. - Mary Aroni was born in 1914, in Athens, Greece. She studied at the Drama School of the National Theater of Greece and made her stage debut in 1935, opposite legendary Greek actress Marika Kotopouli. She was soon hailed as a major actress, created personal groups and collaborated with the National Theater of Greece, excelling in, among others, Aristophanes' "Lysistrata" (title role), Schiller's "Mary Stewart" (as Elizabeth), O'Neill's "Mourning Becomes Electra" (as Christine Mannon) and Chekhov's "The Seagull" (as Arkadina). She starred in only a handful of movies, but two of them have been extremely successful:Youngsters and Adults in Action! (1963),as a middle-aged widow in love with a businessman, and Mia trelli... trelli oikogeneia (1965), as Jenny Karezi's crazy mama. She died in 1992.
- 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
- Additional Crew
Marcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, Italy in 1924, but soon his family moved to Turin and then Rome. During WW2 he was sent to a German prison camp, but he managed to escape and hide in Venice. He debuted in films as an extra in Marionette (1939), then started working for the Italian department of "Eagle Lion Films" in Rome and joined a drama club, where he was discovered by director Luchino Visconti. In 1957 Visconti gave him the starring part in his Fyodor Dostoevsky adaptation White Nights (1957) and in 1958 he was fine as a little thief in Mario Monicelli's comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). But his real breakthrough came in 1960, when Federico Fellini cast him as an attractive, weary-eyed journalist of the Rome jet-set in La Dolce Vita (1960); that film was the genesis of his "Latin lover" persona, which Mastroianni himself often denied by accepting parts of passive and sensitive men. He would again work with Fellini in several major films, like the exquisite 8½ (1963) (as a movie director who finds himself at a point of crisis) and the touching Ginger & Fred (1986) (as an old entertainer who appears in a TV show). He also appeared as a tired novelist with marital problems in Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte (1961), as an impotent young man in Mauro Bolognini's Bell' Antonio (1960) , as an exiled prince in John Boorman's Leo the Last (1970), as a traitor in Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Allonsanfan (1974) and as a sensitive homosexual in love with a housewife in Ettore Scola's A Special Day (1977). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, for Divorce Italian Style (1961), A Special Day (1977), and Oci ciornie (1987). During the last decade of his life he worked with directors, like Theodoros Angelopoulos, Bertrand Blier and Raúl Ruiz, who gave him three excellent parts in Three Lives and Only One Death (1996). He died of pancreatic cancer in 1996.- 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.- 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.- Kakia Analyti was born in 1934, in Piraeus, Greece. She studied at the Drama School of the Athens Conservatory, under the guidance of director Dimitris Rontiris. She made her stage debut in a 1955 Athens production of Grigorios Xenopoulos' "To Fioro tou Levante" and then collaborated with major stage stars of the period, like Katerina and Manos Katrakis. In 1963 she founded the theater "Analyti" and created her personal group with her husband, popular actor Kostas Rigopoulos. Their repertory included plays by Tennessee Williams ("The Glass Menagerie" in which she played Amanda), Aleksei Arbuzov, André Roussin, George Dialegmenos and many others. Their biggest stage hit -and the biggest commercial success in the history of the Greek theater in the 20th century- was François Campaux's comedy "Agapi mou oua-oua" (Cherie Noire), in which Analyti played, for six consecutive seasons, the part of an African maid. She also appeared in a number of 1960s films, mostly melodramas in which she interpreted innocent, romantic girls. She left the stage in the early 1990s and died of a heart attack in 2002.
- Actor
- Art Director
- Soundtrack
Dimitris Papamichael was born in 1934, in Piraeus, Greece. He studied acting at the Drama School of the National Greek Theater, where he made his stage debut in 1955 in Euripides' "Hecuba" and interpreted several important roles during 1955-1960: Treplev in Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull", Jimmy Porter in John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" etc. He then collaborated with the prestigious Theatro Technis (Art Theater) and created a personal group with his then wife, Aliki Vougiouklaki: between 1964 and 1974 they appeared together in several plays including George Bernard Shaw's "My Fair Lady") and starred in some of the most commercially successful films in the history of Greek cinema (their on screen partnership had started in 1959 and their marriage - in 1965 - was received with much enthusiasm from their fans). After their divorce (1974) Papamichael retired from films and concentrated on theater; he was much praised for his excellent work in William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" (title role) and Euripides' "Medea" (as Jason).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Eleni Hajiargyri was born in 1923, in Athens, Greece. She studied acting under the supervision of gifted theater director Carolos Koun and made her stage debut in a 1942 Athens production of Ibsen' s "Rommerscholm". She quickly became one of the top actresses of the first post-war generation, often collaborating with the National Theater of Greece and excelling in plays like Euripides' "Medea" (title role), Shakespeare's "Macbeth" (as Lady Macbeth), Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women", Lorca's "Blood Wedding" (as The Mother) etc. She also appeared in some films during the 1950s; most of them were heavy melodramas, like the archetypal Lily of the Harbor (1952).- 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).- 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
- 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").- Costas Carras was born in 1938, in Athens, Greece. He studied Political Sciences (in London) and acting at the Drama School of the National Theater of Greece. He graduated from the Drama School of Pelos Katselis in 1963 and the same year he made his stage debut in Agatha Christie' "The Mouse Trap". He then started a fruitful collaboration with Ellie Lambeti, appearing in, among others, Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" (as Paul Parker) and Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" (as Stanley Kowalski). He then created personal stage groups and scored personal hits in Gogol's "The Diary of a Madman" and Noël Coward's "Blithe Spirit" (as Charles). He also appeared in several movies; he made his movie debut in 1961 and gave his best screen performance in Iphigenia (1977) as Menelaus. From 2000 to 2007 he had also been a member of the Greek Parliament.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Yannis Voglis was born in 1937, in Athens, Greece. He studied acting at the Drama School of Pelos Katselis and made his stage debut in a 1961 Athens revival of Brecht's "The Rise of Arthuro Oui" (directed by Carolos Koun). He had a solid theatrical career; his highlihts include Ibsen's "Peer Guyyd" (title role), Shakespeare's "Coriolanus" (title role), Sophocles' "Philoktitis" (title role), Gorky's "The Enemies" (as Zahar Bartin) and many Greek plays. He also starred in many movies; his most powerful role was as the cruel landowner in the Academy Award nominated _Homa vaftike kokkino, To (1965)_, but he was also touching as the shepherd in Koritsia ston ilio (1968). He also appeared in international productions and TV series.- Zoe Laskari was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. In 1959 she won the title of "Miss Greece" and two years later she played the female lead in Giannis Dalianidis's youth melodrama _Katiforos, O (1961)_. The success of that film made Laskari a star; she signed an exclusive contract with Finos Film, the most powerful Greek studio of the period, and appeared in many films, musicals, comedies and melodramas (most of them were directed by the prolific Dalianidis, who became her mentor). She made her stage debut in the late 1960s, but really concentrated on theater after the decline of the Greek commercial cinema in the mid-1970s; her stage work includes Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (as Martha), Euripides' "The Trojan Women" (as Eleni), Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" etc.
- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Danielle Darrieux was born in 1917 in Bordeaux, France, to Marie-Louise (Witkowski) and Germain Jean Darrieux, a physician. She was raised in Paris. She was only fourteen when she auditioned for a secondary role in Le bal (1931): she got the part, and the producer offered her a five-year contract. She had her first romantic lead in La crise est finie (1934) and scored an international hit with the historical drama Mayerling (1936) in which she played Marie Vetsera opposite Charles Boyer. In 1938, she went to Hollywood to appear in the fine comedy The Rage of Paris (1938) but quickly returned to Paris.
Darrieux remained in France during the Occupation and was one of the leading actresses during this period, starring in major hits such as Premier Rendez-Vous (1941). In 1945, she appeared both on stage (in "Tristan et Isolde") and on screen (in Au petit bonheur (1946)). In the next three decades, she found several important roles, in films like La Ronde (1950), The Earrings of Madame De... (1953) -- in which she gave her best performance, as a society lady torn between her husband and her lover -- and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967).
In 1970, she replaced Katharine Hepburn on Broadway in "Coco." Afterwards, she made occasional screen and stage appearances. But she made a triumphant comeback in 2002, playing Catherine Deneuve's mother in the international hit 8 Women (2002).
She died on October 17, 2017 in Bois-le-Roi, Eure, France. She was 100.- Actress
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Additional Crew
Valentina Cortese was born in Milan on New Year's Day of 1923. She made her movie debut in 1940 and played many "ingenue" parts in Italian films of that period, before making a real sensation in Caccia all'uomo (1948) and Tempesta su Parigi (1948), playing both female leads, Fantine and Cosette (the film was a competent screen adaptation of the Victor Hugo classic "Les misérables"). The international success of the British-made melodrama The Glass Mountain (1949) brought her some Hollywood offers: she was very sensual as a truck-driver's mistress in Jules Dassin's film noir Thieves' Highway (1949), and particularly effective in Robert Wise's thriller The House on Telegraph Hill (1951), in which she portrayed a woman pursued by a killer.
She then returned to Europe and worked with many great directors, like Michelangelo Antonioni, who cast her in The Girlfriends (1955), and Federico Fellini, who gave her a supporting part in his surrealist fantasy Juliet of the Spirits (1965). She had an especially robust part in Francois Truffaut's Day for Night (1973) as a fading alcoholic movie star (she was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for this performance). She also had a stage career, working with writers and directors such as Giorgio Strehler and Franco Zeffirelli and starring in the title roles of Schiller's "Mary Stuart" and Wedekind's "Lulu".- 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.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Gelly Mavropoulou was born in 1932, in Thessaloniki, Greece, but raised in Athens. She belongs to a large theatrical family and studied at the prestigious Theatro Technis (Art Theater)under the direction of Carolos Koun. She made her stage debut in a 1955 Athens production of George Axelrod's "The Seven-Year Itch" starring Melina Mercouri, and quickly became a top actress, playing important leading roles in Shakespeare's "Othello" (as Dysdemona) and "The Taming of the Shrew" (as Bianca), Aeschylus' "Oresteia" (as Goddess Athena), Molière's "Le Tartuffe" (as Dorine) and many other modern and classical plays; she often created personal groups and finished her career in the early 1990s as a member of the Greek National Theater. She also acted regularly in films and became one of the major Greek female movie stars of the 1950's and 1960's, satisfactory in both comedies and melodramas. But she enjoyed the biggest success of her career in 1971, when she starred in the legendary TV series Agnostos polemos (1971).- 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".- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Martha Karagianni was born in 1939, in Athens, Greece. She studied ballet and made her first screen appearance in Madame X (1956). Three years later, in 1957, she made her stage debut. She alternated theater and cinema for the next few years, but her real breakthrough came in the early 1960s, when she started appearing in a series of films directed by her screen mentor Giannis Dalianidis; all of them were musicals and comedies and made her extremely popular. Her stage work includes Mikis Theodorakis "Omorphi poli", Joe Masteroff's "Cabaret" (as Sally Bowles), Nell Dunn's "Steaming" and many Greek comedies. She also starred in some TV series.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Mary Chronopoulou was born in 1933, in Athens, Greece. She studied at the Drama School of the Greek National Theater, where she made her stage debut in 1953 as a member of the Chorus in Euripides' "Hippolytus". She had a fruitful theatrical career, appearing in many plays, like Lillian Hellmann's "The Little Foxes" (as Regina), Tennesse Williams' "The Fugitive Kind" (as Carol), John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" (as Alison Porter)and Maxim Gorky's "The Enemies" (as Tatiana Bartin). She was very active in films, too, playing a wide variety of parts in comedies, musicals, melodramas and film noirs. She also sang in some of her plays and movies; some of the songs she performed in 1960's musicals are still popular today in 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)_.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jessica Lange was born in 1949, in Cloquet, Minnesota, USA, where her father worked as a traveling salesman. She obtained a scholarship to study art at the University of Minnesota, but instead went to Paris to study drama. She moved to New York, working as a model, until producer Dino De Laurentiis cast her as the female lead in King Kong (1976). The film attracted much unfavorable comment and, as a result, Lange was off the screen for three years. She was given a small but showy part in Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979), before giving a memorable performance in Bob Rafelson's The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), as an adulterous waitress. The following year, she won rave reviews for her exceptional portrayal of actress Frances Farmer in Frances (1982) and a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her work in Sydney Pollack's Tootsie (1982) (as a beautiful soap-opera actress). She was also outstanding as country singer Patsy Cline in Karel Reisz's Sweet Dreams (1985) and as a lawyer who defends her father and discovers his past in Music Box (1989). Other important films include Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991) (as a frightened housewife) and Tony Richardson's Blue Sky (1994), for which she won a Best Actress Academy Award as the mentally unbalanced wife of a military officer. She made her Broadway debut in 1992, playing "Blanche" in Tennessee Williams "A Streetcar Named Desire".- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Alfred Molina was born in 1953 in London, England. His mother, Giovanna (Bonelli), was an Italian-born cook and cleaner, and his father, Esteban Molina, was a Spanish-born waiter and chauffeur. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. His stage work includes two major Royal National Theatre productions, Tennessee Williams' "The Night of the Iguana" (as Shannon) and David Mamet's "Speed the Plow" (as Fox), plus a splendid performance in Yasmina Reza's "Art" (his Broadway debut), for which he received a Tony Award nomination in 1998. He made his film debut in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and got a good part in Letter to Brezhnev (1985) (as a Soviet sailor who spends a night in Liverpool), but his movie breakthrough came two years later when he played--superbly--Kenneth Halliwell, the tragic lover of playwright Joe Orton, in Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears (1987). He was also outstanding in Enchanted April (1991), The Perez Family (1995) (as a Cuban immigrant), Anna Karenina (1997) (as Levin) and Chocolat (2000) (as the narrow-minded mayor of a small French town circa 1950s, who tries to shut down a chocolate shop).- Actress
- Music Department
- Producer
Isabelle Huppert was born March 16, 1953, in Paris, France, but spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray. Encouraged by her mother Annick Huppert (who was a teacher of English), she followed the Conservatory of Versailles and won an acting prize for her work in Alfred de Musset's "Un caprice". She then studied at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique and followed an illustrious theatrical career, which includes Ivan Turgenev's "A Month in the Country", Euripides' "Medea" (title role) etc. She made her movie debut in Le Prussien (1971) and soon became one of the top actresses of her generation, giving fine performances in important films, like Claude Goretta's The Lacemaker (1977), as a simple-minded girl who falls in love with - and is betrayed by - a student, Jean-Luc Godard's Every Man for Himself (1980), as a prostitute, and Maurice Pialat's Loulou (1980), as an upper-class woman who is physically attracted by a young vagabond. She made an inconsequential US debut in Otto Preminger's Rosebud (1975) before playing a brothel madam in Michael Cimino's disastrous Heaven's Gate (1980), but she fared better in Curtis Hanson's The Bedroom Window (1987) (as an adulteress who witnesses an attack). Huppert has an extremely productive collaboration with Claude Chabrol, who cast her in several movies, including Violette (1978), in which she played a woman who murders her parents, and Story of Women (1988), in which she gave an excellent performance as a shameless abortionist, the last woman to be executed in France. More recent good films include Patricia Mazuy's Saint-Cyr (2000) and Michael Haneke's controversial The Piano Teacher (2001), as a sexually repressed piano teacher.- Actress
- Producer
- Talent Agent
Catherine Fabienne Deneuve was born October 22, 1943 in Paris, France, to actor parents Renée Simonot and Maurice Dorléac. She made her movie debut in 1957, when she was barely a teenager and continued with small parts in minor films, until Roger Vadim gave her a meatier role in Vice and Virtue (1963). Her breakthrough came with the excellent musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), in which she gave an unforgettable performance as a romantic middle-class girl who falls in love with a young soldier but gets imprisoned in a loveless marriage with another man; the director was the gifted Jacques Demy, who also cast Deneuve in the less successful The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). She then played a schizophrenic killer in Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965) and a married woman who works as a part-time prostitute every afternoon in Luis Buñuel's masterpiece Belle de Jour (1967). She also worked with Buñuel in Tristana (1970) and gave a great performance for François Truffaut in Mississippi Mermaid (1969), a kind of apotheosis of her "frigid femme fatale" persona. In the seventies she didn't find parts of that caliber, but her magnificent work in Truffaut's The Last Metro (1980) as a stage actress in Nazi-occupied Paris revived her career. She was also very good in the epic drama Indochine (1992), for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination (Best Actress). Although the elegant and always radiant Deneuve has never appeared on stage, she is universally hailed as one of the "grandes dames" of French cinema, joining a list that includes such illustrious talents as Simone Signoret, Jeanne Moreau, Isabelle Huppert, Isabelle Adjani and the younger Juliette Binoche.- Dominique Sanda was born in 1951, in Paris, France. When she was 16, she left her upper-class family and married, but divorced two years later. She found a temporary job as a Vogue model, when Robert Bresson gave her the starring part in his absorbing drama A Gentle Woman (1969); she was quite impressive as a young woman who commits suicide when she finds out that her husband is unable to love her for what she really is. She was then offered the female lead in Vittorio De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970), as the provocative daughter of a rich Jewish family. Afterwards, she worked with Bernardo Bertolucci on the much-discussed The Conformist (1970), as the sensual wife of an anti-fascist professor, and co-starred with Paul Newman in John Huston's spy thriller, The MacKintosh Man (1973). She worked again with Bertolucci in the epic, 1900 (1976), and won the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Prize for her performance in Mauro Bolognini's The Inheritance (1976), as an Italian patriarch's daughter-in-law. She gave one more unforgettable performance in Jacques Demy's original musical, A Room in Town (1982), as a femme fatale. Today, in her seventies, she is still busy, appearing in international films and TV series.
- Nora Valsami was born in 1945, in Cairo, Egypt. She made her stage debut in a 1965 Athens production of Aristophanes' "Ecclesiazousai", when she was still a Drama School student. A year later she made her screen debut in Jenny Jenny (1966); she had only an uncredited bit part in that film, but 'Finos Film', Greece's most powerful film company of that period, put her under contract. After playing several ingenue parts, she retired from movies in 1975 and concentrated on theater. Her stage work includes Lorca's "Blood Wedding" (as the Bride), Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband", Sartre's "Les mains sales", Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" etc. She also appeared in several TV series, often directed by her husband, 'Errikos Andreou'.
- Xenia Kalogeropoulou was born in 1936, in Athens, Greece. She studied acting at the Royal Academy od Dramatic Art of London and made her stage debut in 1956 as a member of the London - based french group "La Troupe Francaise". She made her Athens stage debut in 1958 and quickly became one of the top actresses of her generation, appearing in Chekhov's "The Seagull" (as Nina), Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" (as Porcia), Turgenev's "A Month in the Country" (as Natalia), Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" (as Cecily) etc. She created personal groups (with Giannis Fertis, who was her husband for some years) and founded the theater "Porta". She has also written and directed interesting plays for children. She made her screen debut in 1958 and had a short but fruitful movie career (about 40 films between 1958 and 1972).
- Angelos Antonopoulos was born in 1932, in Piraeus, Greece. He studied at Theatro Technis (Art Theater) under the direction of Carolos Koun and made his stage debut in a 1962 Athens production of Aristophanes' "Ornithes". He then collaborated with many prestigious groups (including the Greek National Theater) and even created personal groups, playing in Tolstoy's "Resurrection" (as Nechliudoff), Luigi Pirandello's "As You Desire Me" (as Karl Zalter), Sartre's "Les mains sales" (as Hederrer), Ibsen's "John Gabriel Borgman" (in the title role) etc. He made his movie debut in 1964 and appeared in some supporting roles, before approaching screen stardom in the late 1960's, co-starring with Aliki Vougiouklaki and Jenny Karezi. He became extremely popular in the early 1970's, when he starred opposite Gely Mavropoulou in the phenomenally successful TV series Agnostos polemos (1971), written by Nikos Foskolos.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Martha Vourtsi was born in 1937, in Athens, Greece. She studied acting at the Drama School of "Theatro Technis" and made her professional stage debut in a 1958 Athens production of Carlo Goldoni's "Locandiera". She collaborated with many important stage groups, appearing in diverse roles: she played Sarah Muller in Lillian Hellman's "Watch on the Rhine", Hecuba in Euripides' "The Trojan Women", Mother Superior in Rogers - Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music", Asta in Iakovos Kabanellis' "I Avli ton Thavmaton" etc. She also became very popular appearing in more than 30 films during the 1960's; most of them were melodramas, in which she was typecast as a poor girl who falls in love with an upper-class man.- Jenny Roussea was born in 1933, in Zakynthos, Greece, and studied at the Drama School of the National Theater of Greece. She made her professional stage debut in a 1956 Athens production of "The Diary of Anne Frank". She collaborated with many groups, before making a real sensation in 1964, when she appeared as Mascha in Checkhov's "Three Sisters". For many years she was the leading lady of Kostas Moussouris' stage group, appearing in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" (as Elvira), Tennessee Williams' "Summer and Smoke" (as Alma), Jacques Deval's "Tovarich" etc. She made her movie debut in 1949, but approached screen stardom in the mid-sixties in a series of melodramas and comedies.