Nikos Xanthopoulos

Acting

Nikos Xanthopoulos

Born 1934-03-14 · Athens, Greece

Nikos Xanthopoulos (Greek: Nίκος Ξανθόπουλος; 14 March 1934 – 22 January 2023) was a Greek actor and singer, known for his roles in the 1960s era Greek Drama Cinema. He was also a singer of Greek folk bouzouki, having released many albums and singles. He was known as "the child of the folk" (παιδί του λαού) mainly for playing roles depicting men from the lower working classes. He usually portrayed a poor man, hit hard by fate, seeking justice or one struggling against wealthy and evil men. In other cases, he played the role of an immigrant in Germany working hard to provide for his wife and child. Other times he played an unknown poor bouzouki player and singer working his way up to stardom. From the late 1960s until the early 1970s, these roles helped him become a star in Greece during the dictatorship of the Junta. Xanthopoulos was born in Athens, Greece in 1934. He was a stage actor from 1957 to 1963, but he soon devoted himself exclusively to cinema. His film debut was in 1958 with a small role in Η Ζωή Μου Αρχίζει Με Σένα (My Life Starts With You). At 1964 he started collaborating with director-producer Apostolos Tegopoulos and the film company KLAK Film. That's when he became most famous for his roles – a golden period that lasted until 1971. It was his roles portraying him as a singer and bouzouki player that dictated that he needed to learn how to sing. Apostolos Kaldaras, a famous Greek musician and composer, taught Xanthopoulos to sing. Xanthopoulos sang over 300 songs in thirty movies, but his singing talent was not confined to movies. He recorded nine albums and 55 singles. His most successful films were produced by KLAK Film, a film production company who specialised in Greek drama films, called μελό or σπαραξικάρδια. Films included: Ο Αετός των Σκλαβωμένων (The Eagle of the Enslaved) and Είμαι μια δυστυχισμένη (I am a miserable girl). Movies of that kind were successful. Xanthopoulos collaborated with many young actresses of his time, including Martha Vourtsi. Martha Vourtsi and Xanthopoulos, quickly became a duo, starring in seven films, their most notable being Περιφρόνα με γλυκιά μου (Contempt me, my dear). Other actresses that played the love interest of Nikos Xanthopoulos were: Angela Zilia, Afroditi Grigoriadou, Kakia Analyti, Katerina Vasilakou, Mairoula Evangelou, Dora Sitzani and Kaiti Papanika.

Acting credits

Μίσος poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Μίσος

1963

I'm an unhappy woman poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

I'm an unhappy woman

1964

Sometimes even the strong cry poster
6.5

A poor young man, working hard, manages and becomes a captain on a ship of the shipowner, in whose home his mother worked older as a shipwreck. But he resigns when he discovers that the ship is dangerous.

Sometimes even the strong cry

1967

With Pain and Tears poster
7.0

Alekos serves as captain of LOC in the area of Trikala. He loves Maria, which she keeps her relationship hidden from hers. When her father discovers it, he sends her to a monastery. Alekos is looking for her but can not find her. He leaves for the war, where after an injury he will lose his memory ...

With Pain and Tears

1965

The man who returned from pain poster
8.0

Nikos Liosis returns to his homeland, with the wounds of the Korean War still fresh in his mind and body. His wife Vera and all his relatives think him dead. He does not want to be present in his home in the state where he is. One day Vera meets him at random. He denies the identity of Nikos Liossis and is recommended as Alexis Sarris. She asks him to play the role of her real husband who never ceases to love, to avoid the marriage forced by her parents.

The man who returned from pain

1966

Orpheus Descending poster
8.0

Eurydice is a singer in a group that plays in country fairs. The group is not successful and Eurydice gets convinced by a rich farmer to follow him to Athens, where he promises her that he will make her a famous singer. Things do not turn out as promised, and Eurydice returns to the band, which is very successful now, due to Orpheus, a mute clarinet player, who has joined them. The farmer comes to reclaim her by force and Eurydice gets killed in a car accident. Orpheus tries to give her life with his clarinet.

Orpheus Descending

1996

For the Love of my Child poster
10.0

Antonis is a tough and heartless guy who, after several years in prison, is released and returns home, causing great turmoil in the previously peaceful life of the village. Everyone fears him and avoids any kind of conflict with him for any reason. Tassos, however, who has recently returned from abroad and has a heightened sense of justice, does not hesitate to confront him in order to win Vasso's heart and save her child (from her first marriage), who has been kidnapped by Antonis in order to blackmail her.

For the Love of my Child

1963

Thirst for Life poster
5.3

Katerina is a spoiled rich woman who spends her time playing with the men who surround her. Only herself and her parents know she is dying and that the first possible emotion will be fatal.She knows that the first time she will love will be the last one and so he is not given to anyone until he meets Stephanos.

Thirst for Life

1964

Η Ζωή Μου Αρχίζει Με Σένα poster
3.7

An arrogant lieutenant of the Royal Hellenic Navy who finds out that his ex-lover has deeper feelings for one of his colleagues, wants to take his revenge on him after a nearly fatal accident. Can he swallow his pride and accept the truth?

Η Ζωή Μου Αρχίζει Με Σένα

1961

The Heart of a Tramp poster
6.3

Shortly before his father dies, Nikos, as the eldest son, promises to help his twin brother Andreas finish his studies. He sacrifices his dreams and the girl he loves, Anna, and throws himself into the harsh struggle for survival. He sets sail and travels to the ends of the earth, but his ship sinks and he is presumed dead. Meanwhile, Andreas completes his studies, becomes a lawyer, and gets married. When Nikos, who was rescued, returns to Greece years later, without papers, crippled, and poor, he finds himself involved in a murder case he did not commit. Andreas is the prosecutor in the trial, and Nikos tries in every way to conceal his identity, but Andreas realizes this and manages to get him acquitted. Nikos, in order not to damage the social standing of Andreas and Anna, prefers to leave again and leave them in peace.

The Heart of a Tramp

1968

Humbled And Dejected poster
7.4

Manousos is the biggest child of a poor and crowded family living in the province. After finishing his term, he decides to work in Athens to help his mother. His friends and acquaintances are detestable, but he will find work as a singer in a nightclub. Soon she knows success and marries Eleni. But her brother wants to spoil their happiness.

Humbled And Dejected

1968

I Never Knew My Mother poster
10.0

After his mother's death, thirteen-year-old Lakis is forced to move to Athens to live with his cousin Marina, who lives with a gambler named Giorgos. Instead of offering him shelter and food, they send him to work at Benos' gas station, where he sleeps at night. Soon, Lakis befriends his boss's daughter, Kiki, who is the same age as him, but fails to win the sympathy of her brother, Takis. One day, Takis steals a large sum of money from his father's office and suspicion falls on Lakis. Benos confiscates all his money and fires him. Alone and desolate, since Marina has left Athens, he sells the suitcase containing all his belongings and begins to wander here and there.

I Never Knew My Mother

1962

The Odyssey of an Uprooted Man poster
7.2

Vasilis Karatzoglou is a successful singer who lives with his mother and sister having lost his father in the destruction of Smyrni. From an old man learns that his father did not die but was arrested by the Turks. He decides to follow the scientific mission of Professor John Anderson in Turkey, to find traces of his father.

The Odyssey of an Uprooted Man

1969

Unfair curse poster
6.5

Costas finds Peter, a poor medical student, and convinces him to marry his sister Lisa. After the wedding, Peter leaves for London, but when he returns, Lisa's relatives avoid him. What has happened;

Unfair curse

1967

The Horseman's Revenge poster
4.0

In a mountainous Greek village, two brothers passionately fall in love with the same woman. Their great love for them makes them unrelenting rivals, with the consequent tragic conflict between them and their extinction.

The Horseman's Revenge

1962

The Harbor Bum poster
8.0

Accused of stabbing his nightclub singer mistress to death, unscrupulous dockhand Christos is on the run. But he swears he's innocent. Could the harbour bum be telling the truth?

The Harbor Bum

1961

The Dangerous poster
10.0

Marinos, Nikos, and Leonidas, along with the tentibossa Sofi, form a small gang that engages in car theft and blackmailing married couples. However, they all fall victim to the notorious Sophie, who lures them into illicit love affairs, where her friends secretly photograph them. Fani, the daughter of businessman Renieris, is in love with Nikos and tries in vain to bring him back to the straight and narrow. One day, Nikos kills the gang leader, Leonidas, because the latter had called him a bastard. He is then arrested and brought to trial, to be judged by his own father, who is the prosecutor.

The Dangerous

1964

Sinful Hands poster
8.0

Kostas and Aliki are somewhat different from the other seven members of their group, which is why they are called "the moralist" and "the down-to-earth one." One evening, Stelios and Stefanos lure them to a wild party at a villa in Glyfada, where the atmosphere is electric: dim lighting, provocative outfits, striptease. After a guest makes an overt sexual advance toward Aliki, the group leaves, but on the way, their car—driven by Stefanos—hits a passerby. They immediately take the injured stranger to Kostas' apartment, and Stefanos asks his uncle, who is a doctor, for help. The injured man soon succumbs, and the doctor reports the incident. Thus, Kostas and Aliki are forced to turn themselves in to the police. What follows is a trial and conviction.

Sinful Hands

1963

The Eagle of the Enslaved poster
7.5

No synopsis available yet.

The Eagle of the Enslaved

1970

In Exchange for Five Apartments and One Shop! poster
NR

"Gia pente diamerismata kai ena magazi" is a documentary about how the process of "exchange" transformed the neighborhoods of major cities of Greece, particularly Athens and Pireus.

In Exchange for Five Apartments and One Shop!

2004

The crumbs of the world poster
6.5

A captain trusts his only son in the hands of a girl, for which he believes is one that correspond.

The crumbs of the world

1967

I Love Only You poster
9.0

A poor and refined water fisherman, Zafeiris Kassis (Nikos Xanthopoulos), who was invited by the barba - Minas pop singer in Athens, maintains his mother and his sister's widow's family. In the center where he sings, Renata, the daughter of the millionaire big publisher Derku and editor of one of his newspapers, is visiting him. At their first meeting, they strongly argue because of a girl's article in the newspaper and his own response. When they happen to meet again in Hydra, where they know better, a strong and mutual feeling develops between them. Renata's father and his environment are opposed to this relationship, while Renata is forced to leave Zafire. But her love for him is unshakable.

I Love Only You

1970

A Man with a Conscience poster
6.5

A freighter leaves the one she loves and goes to Germany to raise money to get married. When she returns she finds her married to another. The same night she goes to ask her the word and the money she sent her for so long, her husband is murdered and he is arrested.

A Man with a Conscience

1969

Men Know How to Love poster
5.4

A delicious and understated countryman, Anna, leaves for the capital to study. He's hitchhiking on the motorway, and a business car, with a medical practitioner, stops to get it. The driver, named Fanis, is doing this job very much to take care of his seriously ill mother. Fanis gives her a place in his house to stay and, over time, falls in love with her, but family situations force Anna to abandon her studies. She returns to the village and marries her fellow villager, the Bargaining Barnabas. This, above all, has sent her father to the grave for unbearable debts. After his death and his mother, Fanis comes to the village and tries to persuade the girl to follow him to Athens, which is done with the mediator's help from the pope. Fanis promises to finish his studies and become the doctor of the village, to marry Anna naturally and to have children.

Men Know How to Love

1971