38 Facts About Irene Papas

Irene Papas or Irene Pappas was a Greek actress and singer who starred in over 70 films in a career spanning more than 50 years.

Irene Papas played the title roles in Antigone and Electra.

Irene Papas had a fine singing voice, on display in the 1968 recording Songs of Theodorakis.

Irene Papas was born as Eirini Lelekou on 3 September 1929, in the village of Chiliomodi, outside Corinth, Greece.

Irene Papas's mother, Eleni Prevezanou, was a schoolteacher, and her father, Stavros Lelekos, taught classical drama at the Sofikos school in Corinth.

Irene Papas recalled that she was always acting as a child, making dolls out of rags and sticks; after a touring theatre visited the village performing Greek tragedies with the women tearing their hair, she used to tie a black scarf around her head and perform for the other children.

Irene Papas was educated from age 15 at the Royal School of Dramatic Art in Athens, taking classes in dance and singing.

Irene Papas found the acting style advocated by the School old-fashioned, formal, and stylised, and she rebelled against it, causing her to have to repeat a year; she eventually graduated in 1948.

Irene Papas began her acting career in Greece in variety and traditional theatre, in plays by Ibsen, Shakespeare, and classical Greek tragedy, before moving into film in 1951.

Irene Papas has appeared on stage from time to time, including in New York City in productions such as Dostoevsky's The Idiot.

Irene Papas played in Iphigenia in Aulis in Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre in 1968.

Irene Papas appeared in The Bacchae in 1980 at Circle in the Square, and in Electra at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in 1985.

Irene Papas was discovered by Elia Kazan in Greece, where she achieved widespread fame.

Irene Papas's first film work was a small part in Nikos Tsiforos's 1948 Fallen Angels.

Irene Papas began to attract attention with her role in Frixos Iliadis's 1952 film Dead City.

The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, where Irene Papas was welcomed by the international press, and photographed spending time with the wealthy Aga Khan.

Irene Papas played in Lux's 1954 films Attila and Theodora, Slave Empress, which attracted Hollywood's attention.

Irene Papas was a leading figure in cinematic transcriptions of ancient tragedy, playing the title roles in George Tzavellas's Antigone and Michael Cacoyannis's Electra, with her powerful portrayal of the doomed heroine; this brought her star status.

Irene Papas became fluent in Italian, and many of her films were made in that language.

Irene Papas said Cacoyannis was the only director that she was really comfortable with, describing herself as "too obedient" to stand up to other directors.

Irene Papas debuted in American film with a bit part in the B-movie The Man from Cairo ; her next American film was a much larger role as Jocasta Constantine, alongside James Cagney, in the Western Tribute to a Bad Man.

Irene Papas then starred in films such as The Guns of Navarone and Cacoyannis's Zorba the Greek, based on Nikos Kazantzakis's novel of the same name, set to Mikis Theodorakis's music, establishing her reputation internationally.

The scholar of film Jefferson Hunter wrote that Irene Papas helped lift Zorba from being merely an "exuberant" film with the stark passion of her subplot role.

Irene Papas played leading roles in critically acclaimed films such as Z, where her political activist's widow has been called "indelible".

Irene Papas appeared as Catherine of Aragon in Anne of the Thousand Days, opposite Richard Burton and Genevieve Bujold in 1969.

Irene Papas stood out, too, in Costa-Gavras's 1968 political film Z based on a real-life assassination, and in Ruy Guerra's 1983 Erendira, with a screenplay by the novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Irene Papas found her stage presence awe-inspiring, especially in Electra, and so powerful as to limit the film roles she could take, as she seemed to be an elemental force of nature.

Schuster commented that in each of the four Cacoyannis films, one shot of Irene Papas's gave "indelible pleasure" and remained etched in the memory.

Bella Vivante contrasted Irene Papas's dark-haired Helen in The Trojan Women with the conventional choice of a blonde, Rossana Podesta, in Robert Wise's 1956 Helen of Troy.

Where Wise emphasised Helen's seductive gaze and framed Podesta as an ideal beauty for the audience to look at, Cacoyannis made the scenes framed as Irene Papas's gaze provide "an empowering female identity".

Irene Papas acted strong women with "beauty and sensuality, but fierce independence and spirit".

Irene Papas denied having any secret to acting with such energy, but said that one's attitude to death was what drove action.

Irene Papas knew Mikis Theodorakis from working with him on Zorba the Greek as early as 1964.

The critic Clive Barnes said of her singing performance on the album that "Irene Papas Pappas is known to the public as an actress, but that is why she sings with such intensity, her very appearance, with her raven hair, is an equally dynamic means of expression".

In 1947 she married the film director Alkis Irene Papas; they divorced in 1951.

Irene Papas was the aunt of the film director Manousos Manousakis and the actor Aias Manthopoulos.

Irene Papas died there on 14 September 2022, at the age of 93.

Irene Papas received the honours of Commander of the Order of the Phoenix in Greece, Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in France, and Commander of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise in Spain.