Irene Papas, the Greek actress and recording artist renowned for her dramatic performances and austere beauty that earned her prominent roles in Hollywood movies as well as in French and Italian cinema over six decades has died. She was 93.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 67 | September 27, 2022 1:10 AM |
She was a bracingly Greek-looking Helen in The Trojan Woman (when she was 45!) compared to the very non-Mediterranean-looking Trojans, Katharine Hepburn and Vanessa Redgrave.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | September 14, 2022 1:46 PM |
Didn't she receive newly found interest among teen girls because she played Catherine of Aragon in ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS? Henry III's six wives are hot stuff right now.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | September 14, 2022 1:48 PM |
She was a compelling actress. Stole every scene.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 4 | September 14, 2022 1:49 PM |
I'm just happy to realize she was still alive until, well you know, until she just died. A grand old age.
Three cheers for Irene.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | September 14, 2022 1:49 PM |
She was 96, OP, as the Times obit in your link notes.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | September 14, 2022 9:03 PM |
At least the people of Greece still have their greatest cultural treasure--ME!!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 8 | September 14, 2022 9:07 PM |
[quote] She was a bracingly Greek-looking Helen in The Trojan Woman (when she was 45!) compared to the very non-Mediterranean-looking Trojans, Katharine Hepburn and Vanessa Redgrave.
The world of Greek myth was populated by gods and heroes we today would not consider Mediterranean looking. There were lots of blond(e)s. Greece and its colonies were later conquered by darker and swarthier Middle Easterners, who intermarried with them.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | September 14, 2022 9:11 PM |
R8 I was their greatest national treasure
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 10 | September 14, 2022 9:17 PM |
Is The Trojan Woman worth watching? I mean what a lineup of actresses.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | September 14, 2022 9:18 PM |
Oy! I meant Henry VIII, of course.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | September 14, 2022 9:21 PM |
What a great actress, a,talented star and passionate woman she was. She was brilliant in Zorba. Her chemistry with Anthony Quinn was on point in Guns of Navarone. In comparison to other Med beauties like Loren,Cardinale and Lollobrigida she had a face made for radio! She could out act those actresses any day of the week though.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | September 14, 2022 9:22 PM |
We need Greg to give us an appropriate Greek menu for the occasion.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | September 14, 2022 10:09 PM |
A face for radio? Oh, dear. Papas was considered sexy and sultry in Europe.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | September 15, 2022 9:31 AM |
R15 well, Europe has had low standards of beauty. They used to mock American films for always featuring beautiful/handsome leading actors/actresses.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | September 15, 2022 9:39 AM |
Oh, dear. Typical American view about what is/is not beautiful. This is partly why most European actors spent very little time in Hollywood. The vapid culture repelled them.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | September 15, 2022 9:53 AM |
R15 Those other actresses I mentioned had beautiful faces. Irene didn't. That being said she was a much better actress than they were. They had the looks she had all of the talent!
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | September 15, 2022 9:30 PM |
A phenomenal, captivating actress who was underused in English films - outside of a few supporting parts in Best Picture nominees like Anne of the Thousand Days, Guns of Navarone, Zorba the Greek, and Z. It's surprising she was never nominated herself, maybe Melina Mercouri was a more recognisable Greek star in Hollywood (Ellie Lambeti was a better actress than both, but never crossed over). Papas has certainly been in a lot of nominated foreign language films, speaking many different languages (Greek, Spanish, French, Italian, Portugese, Arabic, Croatian). Famously she once said: "I never got an Oscar, and the Oscars never got Irene Papas."
Anyway, I like the collaborations between her and Anthony Quinn that spanned several movies. If you want to see her best work, it's worth renting Ilektra, Antigone, and Iphigenia. The scene in the latter where she has to give up her child is even more powerful than the similar scene in Sophie's Choice. Also great in The Message, Island, and many Italian films. Her final movie A Talking Picture is very nice too - she sings a hymn in a very memorable scene on the cruise ship with John Malkovich and Catherine Deneuve.
It's somewhat fitting that she passed a few months after Vangelis, given their many songs/albums together. I'm not surprised people are calling her ugly, but her razor-sharp features were her biggest asset IMO. She looks like a carving on an ancient vase. You can picture her in Ancient Greece performing Euripides in an outdoor ampitheatre, and people all the way at the back feeling every emotion on her face. She mostly played tragediennes, villains, and masculine parts like the warrior Bouboulina anyway that didn't require her to glam up, but she certainly could. It's a distinctively Mediterranean look, but you remember her face as soon as she pops up in a film.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 19 | September 18, 2022 2:39 PM |
I thought she was very beautiful. I have no idea why other people are spouting such nonsense. An extraordinary woman in every way.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | September 18, 2022 4:07 PM |
She was really stunning. And talented. RIP
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | September 18, 2022 4:34 PM |
Funeral pic. Check out the hot silver daddy priest at the far left of the photo.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 22 | September 18, 2022 4:37 PM |
Her striking beauty reminded me of Susan Sontag. Last year I watched one of her Italian movies (she became fluent in that language after moving to Italy from Greece), "We Still Kill the Old Way" (1967), in which she had a good supporting role that she made the most of.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 23 | September 21, 2022 7:13 AM |
Her striking beauty reminded me of Susan Sontag. Last year I watched one of her Italian movies (she became fluent in that language after moving to Italy from Greece), "We Still Kill the Old Way" (1967), in which she had a good supporting role that she made the most of.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 24 | September 21, 2022 7:13 AM |
Sorry for the double post.
When she came to Hollywood in the early 50s she didn't get many good roles, but she said meeting her lover Marlon Brando more than made up for that:
"I have never since loved a man as I loved Marlon. He was the great passion of my life, absolutely the man I cared about the most and also the one I esteemed most, two things that generally are difficult to reconcile"
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | September 21, 2022 7:20 AM |
[quote]r20 I thought she was very beautiful.
I agree she was.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 26 | September 21, 2022 7:34 AM |
I never cared for her, I found her to be a papas ass.
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | September 21, 2022 7:36 AM |
She looked sort of like Maria Callas in the OP.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | September 21, 2022 8:10 AM |
First Elizabeth.
Now Irene.
It's like 96 year olds don't know how to take care of themselves these days.
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | September 21, 2022 8:33 AM |
R13 must have drunk too much contaminated tap water and that damaged her brain. Irene Papas was a sultry beauty, according to the whole wide world standard of beauty!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 30 | September 21, 2022 8:56 AM |
If you want to see what life can be like in a country with a right-wing, militaristic, lying government, watch the film “Z” with Papas in a leading role. I have thought back to that film several times since the 2016 election.
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | September 21, 2022 10:35 AM |
That guy isn't a priest, r22.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | September 21, 2022 10:46 AM |
Iphigenia in Aulis (1967) at the Circle in the Square
Papas as Clytemenstra
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 33 | September 21, 2022 6:56 PM |
Irene was too sullen.
She needed an Almodovar to help us understand and penetrate her shadows.
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | September 24, 2022 11:12 PM |
Irene would cut you.
She would cut you the way Rita Moreno couldn't cut you.
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | September 24, 2022 11:17 PM |
Gorgeous, but named after a sack of potatoes.
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | September 24, 2022 11:20 PM |
Marlon Brando fornicated with Irene for days. In every room of the house. And the yard.
| by Anonymous | reply 37 | September 24, 2022 11:30 PM |
Hopefully that was Brando before he turned into a two-legged Petri dish.
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | September 24, 2022 11:32 PM |
Irene Papas was the younger version of Katina Paxinou
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 39 | September 24, 2022 11:36 PM |
R30 must be a deranged drunken and crazy Greek because she was never gorgeous. Stopping drinking so much fucking ouzo Greg! She wasn't as hideous looking as Melina Mercouri (who was one ugly woman)but she was no looker. Compared to other European beauties like Deneuve, Bardot,Loren,Cardinals and Lol liberties she looked positively Manish and very blah looking! She was never considered to be sexy or anything close to it. However she could act the shit out of a part. That is what made her her a great not her looks.
| by Anonymous | reply 40 | September 26, 2022 2:19 AM |
You're so vanilla, R40!
Irene Papas was in the same mode as Silvana Mangano (though I'm not sure if Irene was as busty as Silvana).
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 41 | September 26, 2022 2:23 AM |
Whoah! Papas! PAPAS! I thought I read, "Car". It was "PAPAS".
WHEW!
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | September 26, 2022 2:32 AM |
She was hot. Sultry. Brando liked them that way.
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | September 26, 2022 2:46 AM |
I hope her Mamas alright.
| by Anonymous | reply 44 | September 26, 2022 2:48 AM |
Melina was a bloody goddess in Europe. R40 must be a Greek-loathing Turk.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 45 | September 26, 2022 2:53 AM |
[quote] a Greek-loathing Turk
Isn't 'Topkapi' set in Turkey??
| by Anonymous | reply 46 | September 26, 2022 3:06 AM |
Melina Mercouri was a fright!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 47 | September 26, 2022 3:30 AM |
Mercouri aged very poorly due to her smoking and sun (you can tell how much she smoked from that gravelly voice). She was also 40+ when she broke through with Never On Sunday, which was VERY old to be come an international sex symbol, especially back then, so she'd be in her mid 60s in that photo. She also had very strong, Greek features (big nose, strong jawline) that stood out more as she aged.
Her best performance is in the film 'Stella' which made her a star in Europe. It's a very raw and sexual film for its time, pre-dating US films like Streetcar Named Desire. The guy who plays her love interest was so hot and rugged.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 48 | September 26, 2022 3:42 AM |
R48. Great photo. Melina was iconic.
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | September 26, 2022 3:44 AM |
Melina's jawline was as large and "iconic" as Vanessa's.
| by Anonymous | reply 50 | September 26, 2022 4:00 AM |
Wasn't she on Beverly Hillbillies?
| by Anonymous | reply 51 | September 26, 2022 4:01 AM |
Oh my god! With Mamma Cass already dead, now they’re all gone!
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | September 26, 2022 5:52 AM |
So Greek and so old that England is trying to steal her.
| by Anonymous | reply 54 | September 26, 2022 5:55 AM |
r8 Nana, they have me too. I'm the Greek-American Homo Superior of internet fame. And I did Milo Yiannopoulos 15 years ago, before Milo, and before Milo self destructed - the fool.
But I'm reveling in all this Greekness.
RIP Irene Papas, one of those epic Greek ladies of modern legend.
| by Anonymous | reply 55 | September 26, 2022 6:00 AM |
How the fuq do these people live this long??? I'm 50 and have, literally, EVERY ailment you can have!!!!
| by Anonymous | reply 56 | September 26, 2022 6:11 AM |
Good interview with Dassin and Mercouri during their exile from Greece. Bit of Papas, too.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 57 | September 26, 2022 6:44 AM |
I guess they weren't fat, r56. That prevents a lot of ailments.
| by Anonymous | reply 58 | September 26, 2022 8:07 AM |
[quote] Wasn't she on Beverly Hillbillies?
r51 Yes, she played Ellie May!
| by Anonymous | reply 60 | September 26, 2022 8:30 AM |
That's probably why chain-smoker Melina Mercouri died of lung cancer, r59.
| by Anonymous | reply 61 | September 26, 2022 9:32 AM |
R56 "literally"
Just go into the light now.
| by Anonymous | reply 62 | September 26, 2022 12:04 PM |
Her performance as the grieving widow is the emotional anchor of the movie 'Z'. She is devastating, with barely a word of dialogue in the whole film.
It came out the same year as Anne of the Thousand Days. She probably split votes with herself, they were two of the most acclaimed movies of the year (1969).
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 63 | September 26, 2022 12:28 PM |
I bet her real name was Irene Pappadoppadolous.
| by Anonymous | reply 64 | September 27, 2022 12:12 AM |
How I watched her in ‘Antigone’! A powerful, towering tour de force. And I learned that the name is not pronounced anti-gone.
| by Anonymous | reply 65 | September 27, 2022 12:40 AM |
The Greek pronunciation of Irene Papas.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 66 | September 27, 2022 12:45 AM |
She was a spectacular actress. Her features were incredibly striking and very unconventional. But beautiful nonetheless. And she could out act anyone in Hollywood. She is otherworldly in Z.
| by Anonymous | reply 67 | September 27, 2022 1:10 AM |
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