(Athens) Greek actress Irene Papas, famous for her fiery appearances in internationally renowned films such as The Cannons of Navarone and Zorba the Greek died at the age of 93, the Ministry of Culture announced on Wednesday.
Posted at 7:51 a.m.
Irene Papas “personified Greek beauty on screen and on stage,” said Culture Minister Lina Mendoni in a statement.
According to the Greek state news agency ANA, Irène Papas died earlier in the day on Wednesday.
The cause of his death was not immediately known. Irène Papas’ health had been fragile for some time.
One of the best-known Greek actresses abroad alongside Mélina Mercouri, she starred in some sixty films during her career which spanned six decades.
She shared the bill with renowned comedians like Richard Burton, Kirk Douglas, James Cagney and Jon Voigt.
“Ordinary actors find it difficult to share the screen with her,” wrote film critic Roger Ebert in 1969.
Irène Papas, whose real name was Irène Lelekou, was born in 1929 in the village of Chiliomodi near Corinth, into a family of teachers.
Endowed with a deep voice, a piercing gaze and a face whose classical beauty recalled the caryatids of ancient Greece, she appeared from the age of fifteen in local cultural events before studying art. drama in Athens.
She made her film debut in the 1948 Greek drama Fallen Angels (The Fallen Angels), then broke into the international scene with DeadCitythe first Greek film presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 1952.
The cannons of Navarone in 1961, in which she starred alongside Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn as a dark-eyed Greek guerrilla, was a career highlight.
She will team up with Quinn again in Zorba the Greek in 1964, another timeless classic.
“I left Greece to find out where the best actors were. I wanted to learn. I was not looking for a career,” she told public television ERT in 2002. “If you do your job well, a career comes by itself.”
In 1969, she played the widow of a murdered deputy in the Oscar-winning “Z” of Costa-Gavras.
She has received numerous awards, including Best Actress in 1961 at the Berlin Film Festival and a Golden Lion in Venice in 2009 for her entire career.
She was popular in Italy, where she appeared regularly in films and television series, including her last role in 2004.