Melina Mercouri, The woman who made history
Awarded artist, an active politician, in love with her country, a fascinating personality which created history both in our country and abroad. Melina Mercouri, who with her struggles and love for the nation and the culture of Greece, made the people worship her and managed even after twenty-four years to maintain a unique
place in the heart and memories of the country.
The Mercouri family was of Arbanian origin, coming from Argolida and some of its members fought in the Revolution of 1821. Melina was born on October 18, 1920, at the home of her grandfather, Spyros Mercouris, Mayor of Athens for about twenty years, a house that was always open for anyone who wanted to visit.
The fact that Melina learned to engage with all kinds of people, from the most powerful to the most humble, combined with the love of Spyridon Mercouris for Athens and the close relationship they had, cultivated her education in human civilization, her communicative charisma, but also her own love for the Capital and Greece.
Her “hereditary” relationship with politics was not only due to the oldest Mercouris, as her father, Stamatis, was an officer of the Cavalry and served as MP and minister, while her uncle, George Mercouris, was the founder of the Greek National Socialist Party.
Melina was not a “child of letters”, she thought the lessons terribly dull and it was impossible for her to dedicate to reading. Instead, she daydreamed and wandered on her dreams of becoming an actor, which led her to read a lot about theater and history. It was, however, impossible to persuade her family of politicians to let her follow an acting career. Their social classes had other expectations, both from the side of her mother with an admiral and a diplomat for brothers and with her father in exile because he opposed Metaxa’s dictatorship.
In 1939, at the age of eighteen, she accepted to marry Panos Harokopos, financially powerful and, as a Cambridge graduate, a highly cultured and free spirit, because he accepted to let her study acting. They married secretly, without the consent of her family. They settled together in one of the most luxurious penthouses in the city and with the help of her friend, Dimitris Horn, she joined the Drama School of the National Theater.
She first appeared on stage, in 1944, at the Britannia Theater, with the troupe of Giorgos Pappas and Antonis Giannidis, in the work of Alexis Solomos “The Path of Freedom” and continued with dozens of performances that made her stand out more and more in the eyes of the public and the critics. In 1949, “Bus of desire” was one of the milestone-performances in her career because the Art Theater of Karolos Koun was “forbidden” to the actors of the National Theater until then. “Anna of the Thousand Days” was a historical performance, directed by Dimitris Myrat and played among others by Melina Merkouri, Irene Pappa, Anna Synodinou, Nitsa Tsaganea, Christos Tsaganeas and others.
Since 1951, she began to star on the French stage as well, where he became the muse of one of the greatest playwrights, Marcel Asar. Her first film, the mythical “Stella”, was first screened in 1955. The direction of Michalis Cakogiannis, the script of Iakovos Kambanellis and Melina’s performance gave the film world recognition and was awarded the Best Retrospective Film Award at the Film Festival of Thessaloniki, 1960, with the Golden Globe of the Best Foreign Film of 1956, as well as the Isa Miranda Award for Melina Merkouri’s performance at the International Cannes Film Festival 1955.
In 1960, it was the landmark year for Melina Merkouri’s career, the year of the international triumph of “Never on Sunday” by Zil Dassen, movie which was awarded the Oscar of Best Song and, she, the Women’s Role Award at the Cannes Film Festival, the nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and was the starting point for her international career. The “Children of Piraeus” by Manos Hadjidakis, who, one year after taking the Oscar of Best Song, made bouzouki, the Greek music, the port of Piraeus, Greece as a whole famous, making it the most attractive tourist destination internationally. Melina went down to the Art Theater Underground and interpreted the deposed star, Alexandra del Lago, to Tennessee Williams’ “Sweet Bird of Youth”, which brought a burst of suggestions for film roles. She traveled to France and sometimes to Italy to take part in films by Claude Autant-Lara or Vittorio de Sica.
The most important American and European magazines sent their colleagues to photograph Melina in her hometown, and she put all her charm and elegance to advertise her homeland. More famous are Slim Aarons’ photos for a US magazine, in her most favorite neighborhood, Plaka. From that time on, she often appeared in photographs on the Acropolis, until the American channel ABC sent a crew in 1964 and turned Melina’s Greece. The music was by Stavros Xarchakos and he advertised Athens as well as many parts of Greece.
She and Zile Dessen married on May 18, 1966, in the Lausanne town hall, with Nikos Kourkoulos being the only Greek witness in marriage. “It is the happiest moment in my life,” said Melina Mercouri. “We would have married in Greece, but then we would have to call a lot of people and no noise and noisy would fit into a simple ceremony that marks a 10-year cohabitation.” The same evening followed a Greek feast with a syringe and a lot of fun in Lausanne Pallas.
In addition to her theatrical and cinematic career in Greece and abroad, Melina released more than fifteen albums, with works by Manos Hatzidakis, Mikis Theodorakis, Stavros Xarhakos, Yannis Markopoulos, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Kourt Vaill and Bertolt Brecht.
The coup d’état of April 21, 1967, happened while she was abroad, on Broadway performing in “Iliya Darling” and said crying to the American media “Please don’t go to my country.” Melina Mercouri had been deprived of her Greek citizenship and her Greek passport since the coup d’état due to her anti-dictatorial struggle. When informed of the decision of the junta, σhe made the historic statement “I was born Greek and I will die Greek. Patakos was born a fascist and will die a fascist. ”
With interviews, concerts, recordings, hunger strikes and political events, Melina was
