Nikos Kourkoulos

Nikos Kourkoulos (Greek Νίκος Κούρκουλος; born December 5, 1934 in Athens, † January 30, 2007 ) was a Greek theatrical and film performer. In the 1990s, he was also artistic director of the Greek National Theater in Athens.

Life and work

Kourkoulos was born in Athens and grew up in the suburb Zografos. In his youth he was an avid soccer player, a member of a youth team Panathinaikos Athens was. However, he opted for an artistic career and was more by chance confronted with the spectacle. An avid reader, he devoured especially books about the theater, so aroused the passion for the drama in it.

After studying acting at the Drama School of the Greek National Theater in Athens, he made his debut in 1958 in the play The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas, where he played on the side of Elli Lambeti and Dimitris Horn. He was a founder of the renowned music group Proskinio. 1967 Kourkoulos also appeared in the United States on Broadway in the play Illya Darling with Melina Mercouri on, for whose performance he was honored with a Tony Award for Best Actor. In the 1960s and 1970s, the actor developed together with Dimitris Papamichail most sought-after Greek theater actor who could mobilize the masses and so generated rising ticket sales at the theater box offices. In addition to classical music, he also played in similar tough pieces by Franz Kafka, Arthur Miller and Bertolt Brecht. He had his last stage presentation in 1991 in the lead role of Philoctetes of Sophocles. Subsequently, he was artistic director of the Greek National Theatre.

His film career has been equally successful. Kourkoulos played in many films from the late 1950s until the early 1980s, the main role. His most famous films have been melodramas with a social background as Oratotis miden ( Ορατότης Μηδέν, 1970).

Nikos Kourkoulos died on 30 January 2007 in an Athens hospital of cancer at the age of 72 years.