40 Facts About Melina Mercouri

Maria Amalia "Melina" Mercouri was a Greek actress, singer, activist, and politician.

Melina Mercouri came from a prominent political family for multiple generations.

Melina Mercouri received an Academy Award nomination and won a French Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award for her performance in the film Never on Sunday and an Italian David di Donatello for Topkapi.

Melina Mercouri was a member of the Hellenic Parliament, elected as a representative of PASOK.

Melina Mercouri 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.

The Melina Mercouri family were an Arvanite family from Argolida who settled in Athens.

Melina Mercouri's father, Stamatis Mercouris, was an officer of the cavalry and served as a member of parliament and minister, and for many years he participated in the administration of the Panathinaikos team.

Melina Mercouri was a founder of the Greek National Socialist Party and a governor of the National Bank during the occupation.

Melina Mercouri was later criticized for living in comfort in a 400 square meters apartment at Avenue Akademias 4, much of which had been commandeered by the Germans at a time when the Greek people were starving and for not contributing to the national resistance.

Melina Mercouri had commented on this period of her life, both in her autobiography, "I was born a Greek," and on television as Minister of Culture, taking responsibility for her non-participation in the Resistance during the Occupation.

Years later, Aleka Paizi gratefully recounted Melina Mercouri's visit to the prison where she was being held, to support her.

Melina Mercouri was alleged to be the great love of her life before she met Jules Dassin.

Melina Mercouri died in March 1961 due to heart hypertrophy, which devastated Melina, even though five years had passed since their separation.

Melina Mercouri was married to him until the end of her life.

At the Kotopouli-Rex Theatre, Melina Mercouri starred in Macbeth by William Shakespeare and L'Alouette by Jean Anouilh.

Melina Mercouri garnered international acclaim when she starred in Never on Sunday, of which Dassin was the director and co-star.

The directors with whom Melina Mercouri worked included Joseph Losey, Vittorio De Sica, Ronald Neame, Carl Foreman, and Norman Jewison.

Melina Mercouri starred in the Spanish language film The Uninhibited by Juan Antonio Bardem.

On June 11,1967, Melina Mercouri appeared on one of the final episodes of What's My Line.

Melina Mercouri appeared in What's My Line several years earlier on Oct 7,1962 and after the panel were blindfolded, a strange man appeared onstage and proclaimed himself "the second mystery guest".

Melina Mercouri continued her stage career in the Greek production of Tennessee Williams's Sweet Bird of Youth, under the direction of Karolos Koun.

Melina Mercouri concentrated on her stage career in 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.

Melina Mercouri retired from film acting after making her last film, A Dream of Passion, directed by her husband, Jules Dassin.

The first official recording of this song was made by Nana Mouskouri in 1960, although the company Sirius, created by Hadjidakis, issued a recording Melina Mercouri made for French television during the 1960s in 2004.

Melina Mercouri's recording of "Feggari mou, Agapi mou" was later covered by Marinella in 1965.

Melina Mercouri immediately joined the struggle against the Greek military junta and started an international campaign, travelling worldwide to inform the public and contribute to the isolation and fall of the colonels.

Melina Mercouri was a member of the party's Central Committee and a rapporteur for the Culture Section while being involved in the women's movement as well.

When PASOK won the elections of 1981, Melina Mercouri was appointed Minister for Culture of Greece, being the first woman in the post.

Melina Mercouri would serve in that position for two terms until 1989, when PASOK lost the elections and New Democracy formed a cabinet.

Melina Mercouri 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.

Melina Mercouri had conceived and proposed the idea in 1983, with Athens being the first title-holder in 1985.

Melina Mercouri was a devoted supporter of the Athens bid to host the Centennial Olympic Games.

In 1983, during the first Greek presidency of the Council of the European Union, Melina Mercouri invited the Ministers for Culture of the other nine member states of the European Union at Zappeion, in order to increase the people's cultural awareness, since there was not any reference to cultural questions in the Treaty of Rome, which led to the establishment of formal sessions between the Ministers of Culture of the European Union.

Melina Mercouri commissioned a study to integrate all the archaeological sites of Athens to create a traffic-free archaeological park to promote the Greek culture.

Melina Mercouri introduced free access to museums and archaeological sites for Greek citizens, organized a series of exhibitions of Greek cultural heritage and modern Greek art worldwide, supported the restoration of buildings of special architectural interest and the completion of the Athens Concert Hall, and backed the establishment of the Museum of Byzantine culture in Thessaloniki.

In June 1986, Melina Mercouri spoke at the Oxford Union, the debating society, on the matter of the Parthenon Marbles and whether they should remain in London or be returned to Greece.

Melina Mercouri said 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.

Melina Mercouri died on 6 March 1994 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, from lung cancer.

Melina Mercouri received a state funeral with Prime Minister's honours.

Melina Mercouri was buried at the First Cemetery of Athens four days later.