FAMOUS GREEK PEOPLE

Famous Greek People

Adazi, Latvia
November 2018

People presented

1. El Greco, painter
2. Georgios Papanikolaou, physician/researcher
3. Maria Callas, opera singer
4. Aristotelis Onassis, tycoon
5. C.P. Cavafy, poet
6. George Seferis, poet/diplomat/Nobel Laureate
7. Odysseas Elytis, poet/Nobel Laureate
8. Manos Hadjidakis, composer

People presented

9. Melina Merkouri, actress/singer/politician
10. Katina Paxinou, actress
11. Iannis Xenakis, composer/architect
12. Kostas Gavras, film director
13. Mikis Theodorakis, composer
14. Vangelis Papathanasiou, composer
15. Giannis Antetokoumpo, basketball player

Dominikos
Theotokopoulos
(1541-1614)
Painter

known as “El Greco”

Born in Crete, Greece,
he was a painter,
sculptor and architect
of the Spanish
Renaissance.

He lived and worked in
Italy and Spain.

"El Greco" was a
nickname as a reference
to his Greek origin.

He normally signed his
paintings with his full
birth name in Greek
letters.

Georgios Papanikolaou
(1882-1963)
Physician, biologist and researcher

A pioneer in cytopathology and early cancer. Best known as the
man who discovered the pioneering cytology diagnostic method,
known as the Pap Test. His test has saved the life of millions of
women all over the world.

MARIA CALLAS
(1923-1977)
Opera singer

American-born by Greek
immigrants, received her
musical education in
Athens.
She became the most
famous worldwide diva of
the opera.
Callas possessed that most
essential ingredient for a
great singer: an instantly
recognizable voice, scarcely
believable for its amplitude
and resilience. Its range
covered almost three
octaves.

Aristotelis Onassis
(1906-1975)
Tycoon

He started making money
when he established
himself as a tobacco trader
in Argentina and later a
shipping owner during the
Second World War.

Moving to Monaco, he
expanded his empire doing
business with Saudi Arabia.

In 1957 he signed a
contract with the Greek
government and founded
Olympic Airways and
became one of two men
worldwide to own an airline.



• Was born, lived And Walls
died in Alexandria,
Egypt With no consideration, no pity, no shame,
they have built walls around me, thick and
• The themes in his high.
poetry are related to And now I sit here feeling hopeless.
history , philosophy I can’t think of anything else: this fate
and sensual love. gnaws my mind—
because I had so much to do outside.
• He is one of the most When they were building the walls, how
well known Greek could I not have noticed!
poets of all times . But I never heard the builders, not a
sound.
• His most important Imperceptibly they have closed me off
artworks, were created from the outside world.
after the age of 40.
Translated by: Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard
• Some famous poems
are: Walls, An Old
Man, Candles, The
Windows and Ithaca.

George Seferis

(1900—1971)
poet-diplomat

This sun was ours; you kept all of it, you
wouldn’t follow me.
And it was then I found out about those
things behind the gold and the silk:
we don’t have time. The messengers were
right.

If I chose to remain alone, what I longed for
was solitude, not this kind of waiting,
my soul shattered on the horizon,
these lines, these colours, this silence.

Odysseas Elytis
(1911-1996)
poet

In 1979 he became the
second Greek Nobel
laureate in literature.

Many of his poems
have been turned into
songs by the best
Greek composers.

… Don’t believe me
The more I age the less I understand
Experience untaught me the world



• The young Hatzidakis

earned his livelihood as a

docker at the port, an ice

seller, an employee in a

photography shop and as

an assistant nurse.
• He was part of an

intellectual elite but shook

the musical establishment

by delivering his legendary

lecture on rebetika.
• Along with classical works

he wrote immensely

popular songs and

composed music got the

cinema and the theatre.
• In 1960 he won an Oscar

for his song “Never on
Sunday” for Jules Dassin’s

film.

Melina Mercury
(1920-1994)

Actress, singer, politician

• Best known as an actress
for the films: Never on
Sunday, Phaedra and
Stella.

• She sang the songs
Never on Sunday, and
Love that became a
double-edged knife.

• As a politician she was
the longest-lasting
minister of culture with
socialist governments
and she launched the
campaign for the return
of the Parthenon marbles
from the British Museum.

Katina Paxinou
(1900-1973)
actress

Born in Piraeus, she
studied in Berlin and
Vienna.
She was disowned by her
bourgeois family when she
decided to pursue a stage
career.
She acted in dramas both
on stage and in films.
During the dictatorship she
emigrated to USA where
she was chosen for the role
of Pilar in the film For
whom the bell tolls, which
gave her an Oscar for best
supporting actress.

PICTURES

IANNIS XENAKIS
(1922-2001)

composer and architect

• He was born in Brăila,
Romania, grew up in
Greece, lived, worked and
died in France.

• He incorporated
mathematical theories in
his music

• His architectural creations
were like poems.



• Was born and grew up in
Greece, but lives and works in
France.

• He is known for films with
political themes, but he has
also made comedies. Most of
his movies have been made in
French, however six were
made in English.

• In 1983 he won the Best
Writing Oscar prize for the film
“The Missing”

• Some more of his famous
films are: Thriller Z (1969),
Amen (2002), Le couperet
(2005).

Mikis Theodorakis
(1925- )

composer

Originally from Crete, he
studied in Athens and Paris
and started composing
from a young age.
Highly political, he was
imprisoned, tortured and
sent to exile.
He scored for the films
Serpico and Zorba the
Greek.
Among his many and
diverse works is The ballad
of Mauthausen, “the most
beautiful music ever
written for the holocaust”.

Vangelis Papathanassiou
(1943- )

• He gave his first public
performance at the age of
six, without having any
music education.

• However, he studied
classical music, painting
and direction at the
Academy of Fine Arts in
Athens.

• He has composed music
for many well-known films.

• He is an Oscar-winner for
the music in The Streets of
Fire in 1982.

• His music has
accompanied a space
mission of NASA.



• Born in Athens on 6/12/1994, son
of immigrants from Nigeria.

• For the first 18 years of his life, he
was an “immigrant without
papers”.

• In 2013 he officially participated in
the NBA tournament.

• He has been playing with
Milwaukee Baks since then.

• He is known as ….

…the Greek freak!

• Philip • Chris • Anastasia
• Helen • Spyros • Aspasia
• Mary • Konstantinos • Rebecca
• Mirto • Michael • Maritina
• Fani • Christopher • Adamantia
• Martha • Efstathia • Jenny

Famous Greek People