Melina Mercouri

Acting

Melina Mercouri

Born 1920-10-18 · Athens, Greece

Maria Amalia "Melina" Mercouri (Greek: Μαρία Αμαλία "Μελίνα" Μερκούρη, 18 October 1920 – 6 March 1994) was a Greek actress, singer, activist, and politician. She came from a prominent political family for multiple generations. She received an Academy Award nomination and won a French Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award for her performance in the film Never on Sunday (1960) and an Italian David di Donatello for Topkapi. Mercouri was also nominated for one Tony Award, three Golden Globes, and two BAFTA Awards in her acting career. In 1987 she was awarded a special prize in the first edition of the Europe Theatre Prize. Mercouri was a member of the Hellenic Parliament, elected as a representative of PASOK. In October 1981, she became the first female Minister of Culture and Sports. She 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. Mercouri's political activism included her long campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles. One of her greatest achievements was the establishment of the European Capitals of Culture, with Athens chosen as the first capital in 1985. Description above from the Wikipedia article Melina Mercouri, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Gaily, Gaily poster
4.3

After runaway Ben Young is robbed and left on his own, he is taken in by Lil, the head of a Chicago brothel. Acting as a surrogate mother for Ben, who thinks she runs a boardinghouse, Lil gets him a job with Francis Sullivan at the local newspaper. As Ben is exposed to the workings of the big city, he realizes the extent of government corruption and sets out on the daunting task of reforming Chicago politics, finding several allies along the way.

Gaily, Gaily

1969

Topkapi poster
6.5

Arthur Simon Simpson is a small-time crook biding his time in Greece. One of his potential victims turns out to be a gentleman thief planning to steal the emerald-encrusted dagger of the Mehmed II from Istanbul's Topkapi Museum.

Topkapi

1964

The Victors poster
6.3

Intercutting dramatic vignettes with newsreel footage, the story follows the characters from an infantry squad as they make their way from Sicily to Germany during the end of World War II.

The Victors

1963

The Marbles poster
NR

The Marbles started filming on the 25th of March 2021 the day Greece celebrated its 200th year of freedom, and outlines the case for the Parthenon Marbles to be returned to Athens. Documenting the ups and downs that have occurred since.

The Marbles

2025

Once Is Not Enough poster
5.2

An over-the-hill movie producer marries a wealthy, spiteful woman and closeted lesbian just to please his spoiled daughter who then, in an attempt to spite him, seduces both a wealthy playboy and a local screenwriter.

Once Is Not Enough

1975

Phaedra poster
5.7

A modern retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. The young and fiery second wife of an extremely wealthy shipping magnate meets her estranged stepson Alexis and sparks immediately fly. Their love seems doomed from the beginning when she convinces him to come to Paris to meet his father.

Phaedra

1962

He Who Must Die poster
6.2

1920s Greece is occupied by the Turks. A country in turmoil with entire villages uprooted. A small community conduct their annual Passion Play. The leading citizens, under auspices of the Patriarch, choose the actors: a stuttering shepherd as Jesus, the town butcher as Judas, the town prostitute as Mary Magdalene, and so on. As the story unfolds, the Passion becomes a reality.

He Who Must Die

1957

Nasty Habits poster
5.0

In a Philadelphia convent, two nuns battle it out to be elected to the position of head abbess, and neither is about to let anything stand in the way of getting what she wants.

Nasty Habits

1977

The Last Judgment poster
6.4

In Naples, a voice from the skies announces one morning that the final judgment will be at 6 p.m. on that day. What follows is a series of vignettes depicting various people's reactions (or lack thereof) to the announcement.

The Last Judgment

1961

Never on Sunday poster
6.9

An American scholar in Greece sets about improving the local prostitute with whom he is infatuated.

Never on Sunday

1960

la loi poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

la loi

The Law poster
5.9

A gorgeous housekeeper turns the tables on the men in a small Mediterranean coastal town by using their own vicious drinking game.

The Law

1959

10:30 P.M. Summer poster
5.3

A female traveling companion seduces a married man and his alcoholic wife.

10:30 P.M. Summer

1966

A Man Could Get Killed poster
4.4

An American businessman visiting Lisbon gets mistaken for a British secret agent who stole some diamonds. As a result, he has everybody in Lisbon after him.

A Man Could Get Killed

1966

The Rehearsal poster
5.4

An indictment of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. The film tries to give a reconstruction of the events during the students' uprising in the Athens Polytechnic (November 1973) by documents, rehearsals, interviews, songs and poems.

The Rehearsal

1974

Promise at Dawn poster
5.5

A single mother raises her son in impossible circumstances first in Leningrad, then Krakow, and then France, and is over-ambitious about him but never gives in.

Promise at Dawn

1970

The Uninhibited poster
6.2

Vincent is recovering from a nervous breakdown in a seaside village on the Costa Brava. He enters into an affair with nightclub owner Jenny, but their relationship changes when she falls for alcoholic author Pascal Regnier, who is struggling to resume his writing career. Vincent eventually returns home, leaving Jenny to stay on with Pascal and his young son Daniel.

The Uninhibited

1965

A Dream of Passion poster
6.2

Maya is a jet-setting Greek actress who returns to her homeland to undertake the role of Medea. Searching for inspiration and clues as to how a mother could kill the children she loves, Maya discovers Brenda, a Bible-spouting American woman serving time in an Athens prison for that very crime.

A Dream of Passion

1978

Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love! poster
5.6

Henri IV falls in love with the young Charlotte de Montmorency, 40 years his junior. The king decided to marry her off to his nephew, Henri de Condé, so that he could later make her his mistress.

Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!

1961

The Gypsy and the Gentleman poster
5.8

A lusty Gypsy gold digger marries a Regency aristocrat, then learns he has no money.

The Gypsy and the Gentleman

1958

Stella poster
6.9

The story of a young, wild woman who doesn't want to compromise and settle down. Stella is a restless, rebellious Greek woman who plays with men and enjoys her life as much as she can. But when she meets a young footballer, things get mixed up. She loves him but she loves her freedom too. So it's about time she made an important choice.

Stella

1955

38-24-36 poster
8.0

The film is a rundown of the songs sung by the stars of the time, chained to various shows such as strip and comic caricatures.

38-24-36

1963

Melina Stop Frame - In Search of Modern Greekness poster
NR

Through thirteen images and an equal number of stories, little Melina-Amalia, the teenager, the woman, the fighter, Blanche, Stella, Ilya, Phaedra, Medea, Clytemnestra, Minister of Culture, the stoic Melina in Memorial Hospital, all aspects of the "last Greek goddess". Shot on the stage of the National Theater Rex - Marika Kotopouli, it captures, balancing between theater and cinema, important historical events that make the myth that surrounds the glamorous protagonist even more powerful and charming.

Melina Stop Frame - In Search of Modern Greekness

2020

Songs of Fire poster
6.6

A documentary about the resistance of the people against the millitary Greek junta.

Songs of Fire

1975

Behind the camera