Melina Mercouri

Acting

Biography

Maria Amalia "Melina" Mercouri (Greek: Μαρία Αμαλία "Μελίνα" Μερκούρη, 18 October 1920 – 6 March 1994) was a Greek actress, singer, activist, and politician. She came from a prominent political family for multiple generations. She received an Academy Award nomination and won a French Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award for her performance in the film Never on Sunday (1960) and an Italian David di Donatello for Topkapi. Mercouri was also nominated for one Tony Award, three Golden Globes, and two BAFTA Awards in her acting career. In 1987 she was awarded a special prize in the first edition of the Europe Theatre Prize. Mercouri was a member of the Hellenic Parliament, elected as a representative of PASOK. In October 1981, she became the first female Minister of Culture and Sports. She has the longest tenure of any of Greece's Ministers of Culture, having served from 1981 to 1989, and then from 1993 until her death in 1994, during PASOK governments. Mercouri's political activism included her long campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles. One of her greatest achievements was the establishment of the European Capitals of Culture, with Athens chosen as the first capital in 1985. Description above from the Wikipedia article Melina Mercouri, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Filmography Movies

Acting

MOVIE

10:30 P.M. Summer

5.3(0.0K)

A female traveling companion seduces a married man and his alcoholic wife.

The Victors

6.4(0.0K)

Intercutting dramatic vignettes with newsreel footage, the story follows the characters from an infantry squad as they make their way from Sicily to Germany during the end of World War II.

Topkapi

6.5(0.2K)

Arthur Simon Simpson is a small-time crook biding his time in Greece. One of his potential victims turns out to be a gentleman thief planning to steal the emerald-encrusted dagger of the Mehmed II from Istanbul's Topkapi Museum.

Never on Sunday

6.9(0.1K)

An American scholar in Greece sets about improving the local prostitute with whom he is infatuated.

Phaedra

5.8(0.0K)

A modern retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. The young and fiery second wife of an extremely wealthy shipping magnate meets her estranged stepson Alexis and sparks immediately fly. Their love seems doomed from the beginning when she convinces him to come to Paris to meet his father.

A Dream of Passion

6.2(0.0K)

Melina Mercouri plays Maya, a jet-setting Greek actress who returns to her homeland to undertake the role of Medea. Searching for inspiration and clues as to how a mother could kill the children she loves, Maya discovers Brenda (Ellen Burstyn), a bible-spouting American woman serving time in an Athens prison for that very crime.

Stella

6.9(0.0K)

The story of a young, wild woman who doesn't want to compromise and settle down. Stella is a restless, rebellious Greek woman who plays with men and enjoys her life as much as she can. But when she meets a young footballer, things get mixed up. She loves him but she loves her freedom too. So it's about time she made an important choice.

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Stella

MOVIE

The Law

5.9(0.0K)

A gorgeous housekeeper turns the tables on the men in a small Mediterranean coastal town by using their own vicious drinking game.

The Last Judgment

6.5(0.0K)

In Naples, a voice from the skies announces one morning that the final judgment will be at 6 p.m. on that day. What follows is a series of vignettes depicting various people's reactions (or lack thereof) to the announcement.

Once Is Not Enough

5.2(0.0K)

An over-the-hill movie producer marries a wealthy, spiteful woman and closeted lesbian just to please his spoiled daughter who then, in an attempt to spite him, seduces both a wealthy playboy and a local screenwriter.

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Once Is Not Enough

Karla

Production

Lilly's StoryMOVIE

MOVIE

Lilly's Story

7.0(0.0K)

A group of dissident Greek film makers try to produce a politically committed film with the backing of American producers in the aftermath of the coup d'etat by the military in Greece in the early 1970s

The Rehearsal

5.4(0.0K)

An indictment of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. The film tries to give a reconstruction of the events during the students' uprising in the Athens Polytechnic (November 1973) by documents, rehearsals, interviews, songs and poems.

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The Rehearsal

Producer