Melina Mercouri

Melina Mercouri (Greek Μελίνα Μερκούρη - Melina Mercouri, born October 18, 1920 ( variously is also given in 1925 ) in Athens, † March 6, 1994 in New York; actually Maria Amalia Mercouri ) was a successful Greek actress, singer and politician.

Biography and artistic work

Maria Amalia Mercouri was born into a prestigious upper middle class family. The grandfather Spyros Merkouris spent 30 years as an elected mayor of Athens. Her father Stamatis Merkouris was a member of the Greek Parliament and briefly Minister of the Interior of Greece. After her parents' separation Melina lived with his grandfather, your desire to become an actress refused. After high school she married in 1939 ( elsewhere specified 1941) the older rich businessman Pan Charakopos, went to acting school and started at the Greek National Theater in Athens with smaller gigs. She made her debut in 1944 in an avant-garde piece by Alexis Solomos. Reviews denominated, the actress was too young, too tall, too blonde, clumsy, talentless.

The marriage of the artist did not last long. 1949 Melina Mercouri went to brief appearances in the province at the theater metropolis of Paris, but soon returned home.

Her career as a film actress began Mercouri in 1955 in the Greek feature film Stella, directed by Mihalis Kakogiannis. The film was awarded the American film criticism for the best foreign film of the year. In Cannes, where Stella was also nominated, she learned in 1955 Jewish- American director Jules Dassin exile, with whom she lived for the rest of their lives ( and whom she married in 1966). In 1956, she played under his direction in the film The man who must die. It was followed by The Temptress, a weak Costume dime.

The international audience, it was founded in 1960 by the comedy sunday ... never! known in which Jules Dassin directed again. For the role of fun-loving whore Ilya, she won the Best Actor Award of the Cannes Film Festival in 1960 and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. The title song, composed by Manos Hadjidakis, the world has been covered by many singers, received the award for the best film music. From this film the birth of the artist was rumored with 1925.

Your world never success with Sunday! opened her way to another major productions. Achievements came in movies such as Phaedra (1962), to Mikis Theodorakis wrote the music, Topkapi (1964 ), the Heat in Chicago ( 1969) and promise in the twilight (1970). The role of Illya played Melina Mercouri in 1967 /68, the Broadway musical Illya Darling.

During the seven -year military dictatorship in Greece 1967-1974 Mercouri lived in exile in France. When the artist publicly took a stand against the regime, the authorities recognized her from the Greek citizenship, her passport was invalidated and Mercouri had great difficulty to travel internationally.

They reacted to the expatriation with the phrase " I was born a Greek and I will die a Greek. Mr. Pattakos (former Greek Minister of the Interior ) was born a fascist. He will die a fascist. " Your 1971 autobiography, she gave the title I was born a Greek. Melina Mercouri made ​​her criticism of the regime on the tours, which she led as a singer in the world, clearly.

After the fall of the military junta and the re-establishment of democracy on 24 July 1974, the artist returned to her home country. In 1977, she was first elected as PASOK deputies to the Greek Parliament. Your last film she made in 1978: A Dream of Passion.

In October 1981, the newly elected Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou took it as culture minister in his cabinet. This office she held from 1981 to 1989 and again from 1993 until 1994. Mercouri's initiative goes back to the establishment of the annual European Capital of Culture. She sat up, inter alia, to ensure that the Parthenon frieze ( Elgin Marbles ) is returned from the British Museum in London to Greece.

In 1989, the artist who had already smoked with eleven years, first cigarette, first operated on for lung cancer. A year later she still ran for the office of Mayor of Athens, but lost the very close election. On March 6, 1994 Melina Mercouri died after an operation at New York's Memorial Hospital.

Jules Dassin founded after the death of his wife Melina Mercouri Foundation, which keeps alive the memory and vision of actress, singer and politician. Melina Mercouri at cultural engagement since the end of the 1990s lent Melina Mercouri Prize remembered for the preservation of cultural landscapes. Jules Dassin died on 31 March 2008 in Athens.

Filmography (selection)

Discography (selection)

Singles

LPs

  • Melina Mercouri sings chansons ( Polydor )
  • Melina Mercouri sings in Greek ( Polydor )
  • Melina ( Polydor )
  • Melina L' oeillet Rouge ( Polydor ), 1973
  • Si Melina ... ( Polydor )
  • Je suis grecque - Greek songs in French ( Polydor )
563226
de