Irene Papas (or Pappas) is a Greek actress and singer, who has starred in over numerous Greek and international films in a career spanning more than 50 years. Papas was born in 1926 (September 3, , 1926) in Corinth, Greece. She features in films such as The Guns of Navarone and Zorba the Greek. She played the Greek heroine in films including The Trojan Women and Iphigenia. She played the eponymous parts in Antigone (1961) and Electra (1962).
Papas won the Best Actress awards for her role in Antigone in 1961 at the Berlin International Film Festival. She also won a Best Actress award for her role in The Trojan Women in 1971 from the National Board of Review. She has received several other awards including the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale.
“I never won an Oscar…
and the Oscars never won Irene Papas.”
Irene Papas was discovered by Elia Kazan and it is said that the great Italian director Federico Fellini was a huge admirer of her work. Papas was a dear friend of Katharine Hepburn, with whom she starred in “The Trojan Women”. Hepburn once said that she is “one of the best actresses in the history of cinema”.
