Melina Mercouri (Greek: ?????? ????????), born as Maria Amalia Mercouri (????? ??????; 18 October 1920 – 6 March 1994), was a Greek actress, singer and politician.As an actress she made her film debut in Stella (1955) and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi, and Promise at Dawn. She won the award for Best Actress at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, and she was also nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two BAFTA Awards.A political activist during the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, she became a member of the Hellenic Parliament in 1977 and the first female Minister for Culture of Greece in 1981. Mercouri was the person who, in 1983, conceived and proposed the programme of the European Capital of Culture, which has been established by the European Union since 1985.She was a strong advocate for the return to Athens of the Parthenon Marbles, which were removed from the Parthenon, and are now displayed in the British Museum.
Cannes Best Actress Award, David di Donatello Golden Plate Award, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Personalities
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Actress, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture – Drama, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress, Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical
Movies
Pote tin Kyriaki, Topkapi, Phaedra, Stella, A Dream of Passion, He Who Must Die, 10:30 P.M. Summer, Promise at Dawn, A Man Could Get Killed, The Victors, Gaily, Gaily, The Gypsy and the Gentleman, Once Is Not Enough, The Rehearsal, Nasty Habits, The Uninhibited, The Law, The Last Judgment, Long Live...
TV Shows
Cities
Star Sign
Libra
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Quote
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"I was born Greek and I would die Greek. Mr. Pattakos was born a dictator and he will die as a dictator." Her reply to the fact that the Military dictatorship in Greece (1967-1974) in Greece had proclaimed that she was no longer a Greek citizen.
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Fact
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Ran for mayor of Athens in 1990, but was defeated.
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Served as Greece's Minister of Culture from 1981 to 1990.
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Elected to the Greek Parliament in 1977.
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A member of the Pan-Hellenic Socialist movement.
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Was nominated for Broadway's 1968 Tony Award as Best Actress (Musical) for "Illya, Darling," a musicalization of the film Never on Sunday (1960) in which she played the same role.
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Melina was interred at 1st Cemetery of Athens, Greece, near to her grandfather and Mayor of Athens, Spyros Merkouris.
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Melina's father was a member of Parliament from the age of 22, and her Grandfather was Mayor of Athens
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Melina was the stepmother of three children, all by Jules Dassin. The names of the children are Julie Dassin, Richelle and Joe Dassin, who was a famous French singer, but died very young.
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In 1953, Ellie Lambeti gave to Melina Mercouri the award "Marika Kotopouli" for best female performance in the theater.
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When she was asked who she would like to be if she was not Melina Mercouri, she answered that she wanted to be either Greta Garbo or Dolores Ibárruri.
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Melina's greatest dream as a politician was the return of the marbles of the Parthenon, known as the Elgin marbles, back in Greece. Now they are in the British Museum.
Melina claimed that her lucky number was 18, because Dassin was born on 18th of December, her grandfather, the mayor of Athens, Spyros Merkouris was born on 18th of June, and she met Jules Dassin in Cannes on May 18th 1955.
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The studio wanted the team of 'R Dassin'-Mercouri to create a sequel to Never on Sunday (1960) named "Illya goes to New York", but both the actress and the director refused and made Phaedra (1962), a commercial flop.
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During the seven years of her exile in France, 1967-1974, Melina Mercouri recorded some highly popular records for UNIVERSAL, named 'Melina Mercouri', 'L oeillet rouge', 'si Melina m etait contee', 'Je suis Grecque' including famous Greek and French songs.
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All the records were prohibited by the military dictatorship in Greece and were very popular after the dictatorship was gone. Melina was also heard in LPs by Manos Hatzidakis, with music from her films Stella (1955), Never on Sunday (1960), Topkapi (1964), and in Mikis Theodorakis's Phaedra (1962) where she was singing with her co-star Anthony Perkins.
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Melina, as a Minister of Culture, was one of the creators of the European Capital of Culture insitution, which recognizes a city of Europe as the centre of many cultural festivities, every 4 years
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Melina met Jules Dassin in Cannes during the screening of her first film Stella (1955).
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Another festival was presented in Greece in 2002 honoring the couple Melina Mercouri-Jules Dassin, and including all favorites movies of the two stars, like Never on Sunday (1960), Topkapi (1964), etc.
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Melina died from complications from lung cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, NYC. She was hospitalized in early February 1994 and underwent surgery on February 23 to remove cancerous tissue, but her conditioned deteriorated on March 5 because of an infection.
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Melina had beside her bed the photograph of her great friend Anthony Perkins, and co-star in Phaedra (1962). She said that the only problem that the famous star had, was his taste for milk.
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Melina Mercouri was personal friend of the Prime Minister of Greece Andreas Papandreou, the Nobel prize winner poet Odysseas Elytis, the Oscar Winning composer Manos Hatzidakis, the famous authors Terence McNally and Vasilis Vasilikos. She also admired very much the leader of the Conservative party, Konstantinos Karamanlis.
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Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1991.
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She was the step-mother of the famous French singer Joe Dassin.
$17 Million
