As she explains, the Marbles are more to Greece than just works of art: they are an essential element of Greek heritage, which ties directly into cultural identity. They were married a decade later.

After her death, UNESCO established the ‘Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes (UNESCO-Greece)' … In her political career, she represented the working-class district of Piraeus, the port of Athens, which had been the setting for "Never on Sunday." She retired from film acting in 1978, when she played in her last film, A Dream of Passion, directed by her husband, Jules Dassin. Their first professional pairing was 1957’s He Who Must Die. In 1953, Mercouri received the Marika Kotopouli Prize. Here is all you want to know, and more! Cause of Death. Melina Mercouri, was a Greek actress, singer and politician. [citation needed], When PASOK won the elections of 1981, Mercouri was appointed Minister for Culture of Greece, being the first female in that post. After repeated delays, the glass and concrete museum at the foot of the Acropolis is set to open to the public in September — with plaster casts replacing the works still displayed in London. Other films by Dassin and featuring Mercouri followed, such as The Law (1959). He married the actress-politician in 1966 and settled permanently in Athens. She received an Academy Award nomination and won a Cannes Film Festival Award for her performance in the 1960 film Never on Sunday. Those bastards were born fascists and they will die fascists". Dassin was disheartened by its weak box office performance and never made another film. Born (Birthday) Oct 18, 1920. At the time of the coup d'état in Greece by a group of colonels of the Greek military on 21 April 1967, she was in the United States, playing in Illya Darling. In later years, their main home was in Athens, and they had a vacation home on the Greek island of Spetsai. Mercouri concentrated on her stage career for the following years, playing in the Greek productions of The Threepenny Opera and, for a second time, Sweet Bird of Youth, in addition to the ancient Greek tragedies Medea and Oresteia. Miss Mercouri was hospitalized in early February and underwent surgery on Feb. 23 to remove cancerous tissue, but her conditioned deteriorated on Saturday because of an infection, Ms. Turi said. Celebrities and Notable People Who Have Had Coronavirus. Miss Mercouri, whose greatest screen success was her role as a flamboyant prostitute in the 1960 film "Never on Sunday," was 68, her family said, … Mercouri concentrated on her stage career for the following years, playing in the Greek productions of The Threepenny Opera and, for a second time, Sweet Bird of Youth, in addition to the ancient Greek tragedies Medea and Oresteia. Ms. Mercouri entered politics, becoming a member of Parliament and later culture minister. The Melina Mercouri Foundation was founded by her widower. [5][6][7][8][9], While in London she worked with Amalia Fleming and Helen Vlachos of Kathimerini against the junta of the colonels.[10]. Irene Lappa's information is not available now. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Other films by Dassin and featuring Mercouri followed, such as The Law (1959).

She had no children. A major turning point occurred at the 1956 Cannes International Film Festival, where she met Mr. Dassin. Maria (Melina)'s cause of death was cancer - lung. In 1953, she received the Marika Kotopouli Prize and returned to Greece two years later.

Dassin directed his wife in seven films, including 1960’s “Never on Sunday,” in which she gained international notice for her portrayal of a kindhearted prostitute. Mar 6, 1994. In October 1981, Mercouri became the first female Minister of Culture and Sports. She is survived by her husband and by a brother, Spiros Mercouris. Remains: Buried, First Cemetery, Athens, Greece. Her recording of “Feggari mou, Agapi mou” (Phaedra) was quite popular and was later covered by Marinella in 1965. Melina Mercouri Robert Mitchum Claude Monet Gary Moore Agnes Moorehead Henry Morgan Gary Morton Johnny Most Edward Mulhare Edward R. Murrow Bob Murphy Lorenzo Music Pat Nixon ... list smoking as the cause of death. She would serve in that position for two terms until 1989, when PASOK lost the elections and New Democracy formed a cabinet. In 1980, Dassin made the Canadian-backed film “Circle of Two,” starring Richard Burton as an aged artist with a romantic fixation on a teenage student, played by Tatum O’Neal. She strongly advocated the return to Athens of the Parthenon Marbles, that were removed from Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, and are now part of the British Museum collection in London. Biography - A Short Wiki. Ask the lawyer, Yosemite National Park: Bay Area native named new superintendent. Mercouri died on 6 March 1994 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, from lung cancer, aged 73. Their first professional pairing was 1957's He Who Must Die. Mercouri's last performance on stage was in the opera Pylades at the Athens Concert Hall in 1992, portraying Clytemnestra. At the Kotopouli-Rex Theatre, Mercouri starred in plays like Macbeth by William Shakespeare and L’Alouette by Jean Anouilh.

Until 1950, she also worked in the same theatre in other plays by Aldous Huxley, Arthur Miller and André Roussin.

She won the award for Best Actress at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival (which she shared with Jeanne Moreau for her performance in Seven Days...Seven Nights). After her first major international success, she went on to star in Phaedra (1962), for which she was nominated again for the BAFTA Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Motion Picture Drama.

[citation needed], Mercouri commissioned a study for the integration of all the archaeological sites of Athens to create a traffic-free archaeological park to promote the Greek culture.

She also starred on the Paris stage and made her film debut as a doomed cabaret entertainer in "Stella," a 1955 melodrama directed by Michael Cacoyannis. It was titled Hartino to Fengaraki ("Papermoon") and was a part of the Greek production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1949, in which she starred as Blanche DuBois. The movie actress Melina Mercouri died at the age of 73. His 1974 film “The Rehearsal” was based on the Greek student rebellions that helped bring down a 1967-74 military junta that had forced Dassin and Mercouri into exile in Paris. Last seen onstage as Clytemnestra in a 1992 production of "Plyades", Melina was reappointed Minister of Culture in 1993 and was serving at the time of her death from lung cancer. As for love, she commented: "All any woman wants is to sleep with a man. If you see something that doesn't look right on this page, please do inform us using the form below: © 2017 Dead or Kicking / All Rights Reserved. With your free account at foundagrave.com, you can add your loved ones, friends, and idols to our growing database of "Deceased but not Forgotten" records. After the panel were blindfolded, a strange man appeared on-stage and proclaimed himself “the second mystery guest”. She had no children. Her last performance on stage was in the opera Pylades at the Athens Concert Hall in 1992, portraying Clytemnestra. She spoke French, German and English, as well as Greek.

Her father Stamatis Mercouris was a former cavalry officer member of the Greek parliament and minister. In 1949, she had her first major success in the theatre playing Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams and staged by Karolos Koun’s Art Theatre. He joined New York’s Yiddish Theater in 1936 and wrote adaptations of theater plays for radio. Melina's photograph on the right. After his wife’s death he created the Melina Mercouri Foundation to continue her campaign to have the 2,500-year-old marbles that were stripped from the Parthenon returned to Greece. Mercouri worked with such directors as Joseph Losey, Vittorio De Sica, Ronald Neame, Carl Foreman, Norman Jewison, and starred in films like Spanish language The Uninhibited by Juan Antonio Bardem. The movie actress Melina Mercouri died at the age of 73.

Mr. Dassin directed, and often wrote and produced, most of Miss Mercouri's nearly 20 other movies, including "He Who Must Die" (1957), about life overtaking a Passion play in a primitive village on Crete; Mr. Dassin co-adapted the story from the novel "The Greek Passion," by Nikos Kazantzakis. In 1983, Mercouri proposed the programme of the European Capital of Culture, which was established by the European Union in 1985. All Access Digital offer for just 99 cents! Ms. Mercouri died in … In 1983, she had a famous live television spat with then British Museum director David M. Wilson, which was widely interpreted as a public relations disaster for the British museum. In 1967, she played the leading role in Illya Darling (from 11 April 1967 to 13 January 1968) on Broadway, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, while her performance in Promise at Dawn (1970) earned her another Golden Globe Award nomination. She was survived by her husband, Jules Dassin. After her death, UNESCO established the ‘Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes (UNESCO-Greece)' which rewards outstanding examples of action to safeguard and enhance the world's major cultural landscapes. “If there is anything I want to be remembered for it is for fulfilling Melina’s dream,” he said in a 1997 interview. In 1949, she had her first major success in the theatre playing Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams and staged by Karolos Koun's Art Theatre. She became well-known to international audiences when she starred in Never on Sunday (1960), in which Dassin was the director and co-star, and for which she earned the Best Actress Award at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Life is simple.".

She served in the post until 1989, when her party lost power, and then returned when the party was re-elected in October. She was nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two BAFTA Awards. The cause of death was not made public.

Although Melina Mercouri died twenty years ago, on March 6, 1994, her memory remains very much alive in Greek hearts. Their other team efforts included "Topkapi," a well-regarded 1964 museum-theft caper; "10:30 P.M. Summer," a 1966 story of a descent into alcoholism, and "Promise at Dawn" (1970), from a memoir by Romain Gary about his unconventional mother. She immediately joined the struggle against the Greek Military Junta and started an international campaign, travelling all over the world to inform the public and contribute to the isolation and fall of the colonels. He moved on to make films at MGM, Universal and 20th Century Fox. "[12] and Mrs. Smith.” A year later, he directed his first film, “The Tell-Tale Heart” based on an Edgar Allan Poe short story. As Minister of Culture, she also strove to revive classical Greek culture by increasing Government subsidies for the arts, building provincial libraries and pressing for the preservation of historic monuments. Mercouri was born in 1920.

She received a state funeral with Prime Minister’s honors at the First Cemetery of Athens four days later. Coronavirus Update. Actress. [14] She was survived by her husband, Jules Dassin. One of her first songs was by Manos Hadjidakis and Nikos Gatsos.

Birthday: October 18, 1920Date of Death: March 6, 1994Age at Death: 73.