Legendary Greek actress Irene Papas dies

Legendary Greek actress Irene Papas has died at the age of 96 in the town where she was born and raised, Chiliomodi, near Corinth.

In 2018 it became public that she had Alzheimer's.

His performance in the films

and

gave him international fame, but his long career includes nearly 60 films and numerous plays, where he played the greats of classical Greece: Medea, Electra, Clytemnestra, Helena, Penelope, Antigone, Anticlea, which made her a symbol of Hellenic culture.

A contemporary of Melina Mercouri, another mythical Greek actress, she studied theater in Athens and took part in productions of classic plays, many of which were adapted years later for the big screen by Michael Cacoyannis, including

(1961),

(1962) or

(1971),

the latter with Vanessa Redgrave and Katherine Hepburn.

It was the American director J. Lee Thompson who made her known to the world by including her in the cast of

(1961).

After her came others like

(1964), by Yorgos Yavella;

(1969), by Costa Gavras, or the most recent

(2003),

by Manoel Oliveira.

She also participated in the film adaptation of

directed in 1976 by Souheil Ben-Barka and in

de Pilar Távora in 1999.

Anthony Quinn, Lila Kedrova and Irene Papas, with director Michael Cacoyannis, at the Paris premiere of 'Zorba the Greek' in 1965. Keystone (Getty Images)

Papas had a close relationship with Spain.

In 1987 he performed for the first time in this country, in a recital at the Mérida Classical Theater Festival.

In 1992 she embodied

under the direction of Núria Espert during the 1992 Games cultural Olympiad in Barcelona.

In 2001 he participated in a version of

with La Fura dels Baus in Sagunto, where he founded a theater school that he combined with those he ran in Rome and Athens.

She was appointed artistic director of the City of Arts and Sciences of Valencia, but her contract was terminated in 2005, before the agreed date, so the actress subsequently claimed payment for the full contract from the Generalitat.

Fame did not save her from exile.

In 1967 a military dictatorship began in Greece that the actress rejected, which is why she went first to Italy and then to New York along with other artists.

It was in those years when she had a love affair with the famous actor Marlon Brando and, after his death, the actress confessed that he was the love of her life.

After the fall of the military junta in 1974, Irene Papas returned to her country.

Married in the 1940s to the actor Alkis Papas (from whom she took the last name, since hers was Lelekou), she maintained a great friendship with Andreas Papandreou, who was Greek Prime Minister for several periods between 1981 and 1996.