Name
Melina Mercouri
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1920-10-18
Deathday
1994-03-06 (74 years old)
Place of Birth
Athens, Greece
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.
Known For
5.167
An over-the-hill movie producer marries a wealthy, spiteful woman and closeted lesbian jus...
6.914
An American scholar in Greece sets about improving the local prostitute with whom he is in...
6.339
Intercutting dramatic vignettes with newsreel footage, the story follows the characters fr...
6.474
In Naples, a voice from the skies announces one morning that the final judgment will be at...
6.056
Greece, in the 1920s, is occupied by the Turks. The country is in turmoil with entire vill...
5.276
A female traveling companion seduces a married man and his alcoholic wife....
- 1966 10:30 P.M. Summer as Maria
- 1963 The Victors as Magda
- 1964 Topkapi as Elizabeth Lipp
- 1960 Never on Sunday as Ilya
- 1962 Phaedra as Phaedra Kyrilis
- 1978 A Dream of Passion as Maya / Medea
- 1955 Stella as Stella
- 1959 The Law as Donna Lucrezia
- 1961 The Last Judgment as Foreign lady
- 1975 Once Is Not Enough as Karla
- 1977 Nasty Habits as Sister Gertrude
- 1969 Gaily, Gaily as Lil
- 1958 The Gypsy and the Gentleman as Belle
- 1966 A Man Could Get Killed as Aurora / Celeste da Costa
- 1965 The Uninhibited as Jenny
- 1970 Promise at Dawn as Nina Kacewa
- 1974 The Rehearsal as Self
- 2017 Melina's fight for the Parthenon sculptures as Self (archive footage)
- 1957 He Who Must Die as Katerina
- 1961 Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love! as Marie de Médicis
- 1963 38-24-36 as Self
- 1975 Songs of Fire as Self
- 2020 Melina Stop Frame - In Search of Modern Greekness as Self (archive footage)
- 2025 The Marbles as Self - Photo Only (archive footage)
- Soon la loi as Lucrezia
- 1962 The Merv Griffin Show ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 1972 Le Grand Échiquier ( 3 episodes ) as Self
- 1965 Dim Dam Dom ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1984 Kronen Könner Kavaliere ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1968 À bout portant ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1962 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ( 3 episodes ) as Self
- 1950 What's My Line? ( 2 episodes ) as Self - Mystery Guest
- 1971 V.I.P. Schaukel ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1975 Les Rendez-vous du dimanche ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1956 Cinépanorama ( 3 episodes ) as Self
- 1969 Wünsch dir was ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1964 Die Drehscheibe ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1959 Discorama ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1971 Samedi soir ( 3 episodes ) as Self
