Katina Paxinou

Katina Paxinou was a Greek film and stage actress who achieved international recognition for her tragic roles in both modern and classic drama. She started her stage career in Greece in 1928 and was one of the founding members of the National Theatre of Greece in 1932. She performed in several major plays by Sophocles, Ibsen, Chekhov, Shakespeare, and others, and also translated and adapted modern plays into Greek. She was acclaimed for her portrayals of Electra, Clytemnestra, Jocasta, and other powerful female characters. The outbreak of World War II found her in the United Kingdom and she later moved to the United States, where she made her film debut in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) and won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Pilar, a Spanish revolutionary. She appeared in a few more Hollywood films, such as Hostages (1943), Confidential Agent (1945), and Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), before returning to Greece in the early 1950s. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1951. She then focused on her stage career and appeared in a number of European films, such as Rocco and His Brothers (1960), The Miracle (1961), and The Red Lanterns (1963). She also produced revivals of classic plays in ancient outdoor Greek theatres and collaborated with her second husband, the Greek actor and director Alexis Minotis, whom she married in 1940. She was considered the greatest Greek actress of the 20th century and was honored with several awards and distinctions, such as the Order of the Phoenix and the Gold Cross of the Legion of Honor. Paxinou died after a long battle with cancer in Athens on February 22, 1973, at the age of 72. She was survived by her husband and her two children from her first marriage to Ioannis Paxinos, whose surname she continued using after their divorce. Her remains are buried at the First Cemetery of Athens.