Katina Paxinou

In memoriam

Actress. Born in Piraeus, Greece, she first appeared on stage in 1928, in an Athens production of Bataille's "La femme nue." In the early 1930's she was one of the founding members of the Greek Royal Theater (which later was named Greek National Theater) and performed several major roles in Sophocles' "Electra," Ibsen's "Ghosts" etc. often co-starring with her husband, 'Alexis Minotis.' The outbreak of the Second World War found her in UK; she later managed to arrive at the USA, where she was offered her first film role in 1943 in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) . The Ernest Hemingway adaptation won her raves for her superb portrayal of Pilar, a Spanish revolutionary, and won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award (and a Golden Globe) in 1944. She made a few more Hollywood movies, before returning to Greece in the early 1950's. During 1950 to 1971 she gave excellent performances in Christopher Fry's "The Dark Is Light Enough," Friedrich Durrenmatt's "The Visit," Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex," Euripides' "Hecuba" and Brecht's "Mother Courage." She also starred in some other movies; she was particularly touching as the Italian matriarch in the 'Luchino Visconti' masterpiece Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960). Katina died of cancer in 1973 but her legacy as an actress is considered as the greatest of Greek in the 20th century.

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