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1-10 of 10
- 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.- 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.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Orestis Laskos was a Greek film director, writer, actor and poet. Born in Eleusis, in 1907, from a rich family of landlords. After graduating high school, he moved to Athens to join the Medical School and later the Military Academy but after a while he quit. He started as a actor and singer, but in the early 1930s we was attracted to filmmaking. One of the pioneers of Greek silent cinema, Laskos directed 'Dafnis kai Hloi (1931)', regarded as a groundbreaking film for its time, due to nudity and original photography. Apart from films, he wrote poems, which he enjoyed reciting at the theater. He married twice, and had a son. Died in 1992.- She studied theatre at Marika Kotopouli's drama school. She worked with Karolos Koun Art Theatre. She played at "Blood Wedding" (Federico García Lorca) and "The glass Menagerie" (Tennessee Williams) in the late forties. She also worked with Mrs Katerina (famous Greek actress at that time) and with Kostas Mousouris's group in the early fifties. In the mid fifties she created a group with two Greek actors, Dimitris Horn and Giorgos Pappas. In the sixties she gave unforgettable performances with her own group. One of these performances was "A streetcar named desire" where she played Blanche du Bois. In 1967 she suffered the onset of cancer. Although she was seriously ill, she continued to appear on stage until 1982 (one year before her death). Her last appearance was as Sarah in a play which is widely known from the movie Children of a Lesser God (1986). At that time she no voice at all, the cancer having deprived her of it.
- Edison Vihos (or Apollon Marsyas as was his screen name) was an amateur Greek actor and photographer. He became popular playing Dafnis, in Orestis Laskos' film Daphnis and Chloe (1931). It was the first Greek film to feature some nudity, and at that time it was considered scandalous. He played in one more film (Prince of the Tramps (1932)) and he gave up acting. Later he became a photographer, while at some point he was spotted owning a shop with picture frames and other decoration items in Athens. He died in 1994.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Sofia Vempo was a well known singer and actress of Greece before the second world war. During the war against the Italians and the Germans, she became very popular because she sang some wonderful songs that inspired the Greek people and humiliated the dictators of Germany and Italy.
During the Greek military dictatorship 1967-1974, and especially during 1973 she helped and had hidden students in her apartment that were being sought by the police of that period. Her spouse was 'Mimis Traiforos', a well known composer of classic Greek songs.
Sofia was also the star of another movie besides the classic Stella (1955). She was the star of Stournara 288 (1959), where she played a famous singer who was forgotten by her fans and lived as a piano teacher.
She is known as the 'National Singer of Greeece, her songs are performed by many singers like Haris Alexiou. Her most popular song of the World War 2 period was named Paidia Ths Ellados Paidia, which means, Children of Greece, and it was about the military boys of Greece.- Producer
- Production Manager
- Editor
Filopoimin Finos was one of the biggest producers of the Greek cinema during the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. His father was a farmer, but Finos loved cinema from his childhood, so when he came of age he sold everything that he owned in order to make reality out of his dreams. His last movie was produced in the 70s, and it starred Dionysis Papagiannopoulosin Giannis Dalianidis's film O kyr' Giorgis ekpaidevetai (1977). It was a big flop, and the company that he had created back in the 40s named Finos Film was bankrupted. During the previous 3 decades he produced the biggest successes of the Greek cinema, but he was always under criticism because of the lack of quality in some of them. On the other hand some of his films like Lily of the Harbor (1952), I Aliki sto Naftiko (1961), Madalena (1960), Oi kyries tis avlis (1966) , Stefania (1966), Barrel Piano, Poverty and Carnations (1957), The Auntie from Chicago (1957) and many many others, are considered as classic and perfect portrait of mid-class Greece of the 50s and 60s. He produced many films, and he created major stars out of them, like Aliki Vougiouklaki, Rena Vlahopoulou, Alekos Alexandrakis, Martha Karagianni, Jenny Karezi Dimitris Papamichael, Dinos Iliopoulos, Georgia Vasileiadou and many many more. He even pushed the career of the great Irene Papas, but he never thought of Melina Mercouri as a movie star because of her big mouth, so he missed the opportunity to expand and become an international company, when he refused to co-produce Never on Sunday (1960).
His only attempt to make an international film, was with Aliki Vougiouklaki in 1962 and Rudolph Maté. The film was Aliki My Love (1963) and it was a miserable flop, that cost many million drachmas to Finos. During the last years of his life he failed to gain the respect of the critics and the love and popularity of the Greeks. He died never working on the TV, which he never liked and accepted. But F. Finos has gained immortality...his films are constantly shown in the Greek TV channels, with great rating. The Greek Cinema, although now creating films of quality and high ideals, never regained the popularity that had when he was producing films.- Spyros Melas was a Greek journalist, writer, dramatist, stage director, editor and academic. He was one of the most productive figures with a long-standing service and manifold activities in the intellectual domain of his time. He was born in Nafpaktos and joined the Athens University Law School, but did not complete his studies. He started his career in journalism with the newspapers 'Asty' and 'Acropolis', while he was soon distinguished as a chronicler and war correspondent at the Balkan Wars, where he served as an artillery sergeant and at the Greco-Italian war, as well. He published his experience in his book "Polemikes selides" (War Pages).
He served as the chief editor in the newspapers "Chronos", "Nea Imera", "Patris", as the director in "Democratia" (1924) and collaborated with many others ("Ebros", "I Kathimerini", "Eleftheria", "Estia", "To Vima"), while in 1948, he published the periodical "Elliniki Dimiourgia".
He also deployed an important activity in the theater area, as a writer, actor and director. In 1925, he founded the short-lived "Theatro Tehnis" (Art Theater) and in 1929 co-founded the theater company "Elefthera Skini" (Free Stage) with Marika Kotopouli and Dimitris Myrat. He was the director of this companies. He revived notably the Athenian repertoire from 1924 until 1936 and collaborated with Aliki Theodorides and Kostas Mousouris.
In 1935, he was elected a member of the Academy of Athens, where he served as the president in 1959. - Make-Up Department
- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
He was called the 'Greek Charlot', and was one of the most special men of film studios and theatrical back stages, as well as a unique artist of make-up. Kimon Spathopoulos, born in Constantinople in 1904, migrated to France at the early 20s. According to the biography by Thodoros Exarhos, he was a talented mime artist and started working outside a famous Parisian movie theater, advertising Charles Chaplin's films. Appeared as an extra in some films before settling to Greece in 1928. He kept miming Chaplin's tramp outside theaters for advertising, that's when he got the nickname the 'Greek Charlot'. He made his film debut in Orestis Laskos's The Clown of Life (1930). Since then he acted in numerous productions alongside the most famous Greek actors. His ability to transform the actor's face in different personas using make-up and masks, gave him the denomination 'The man with a thousand faces' and helped him to become the first important make-up artist with a multi-annual career. Died in 1990.- Director
- Writer
- Art Director
Born in Athens, Greece. Studied at the Lycée Léonin of Athens and in the Theresianische Akademie in Vienna. One of the pioneers of Greek cinema, he worked as art director in Dimitris Gaziadis' Astero (1929) and Orestis Laskos' Daphnis and Chloe (1931) on the side of Dimitris Meravidis, and had a small role in Ahilleas Madras' The Wizard of Athens (1931). He directed two feature films, Open Sea (1954) and Elsewhere the Cackling (1960), and two short documentaries, Sophocles' Elektra (1938, National Theater, by Dimitris Rontiris and Kos, to nisi tou Ippokratous (1958). In 1955 he founded the Ancient Drama Film Organization, intended to produce and distribute film versions of ancient Greek tragedies. In the same year he adapted Sophocles' Oedipus the King for the big screen. Filming started in 1959, with Dimitris Myrat as Oedipus and Aleka Katselli as Jocasta but the film was never completed. He was a regular columnist in the 'Nea' newspaper (1929-1932) and in the 'Parlan' and 'Protoporoi' magazines. In 1931, he has assigned director of the Athens press office of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He had an important career as a theatrical photographer. His love for the art of photography is dated to the mid-20's. As the first photographer of National Theater, he contributed with irreplaceable aesthetic documents from shows of the state theater, as well as from independent companies, for more than two decades (1932-1955).