Katina Paxinou
Katina Paxinou is one of the greatest Greek actresses, who starred in the theater and the cinema. She gained worldwide reputation and she was the first non-American actress that received an Oscar Academy Award. Smart, sophisticated and ingenious, she gave flesh and blood to the roles that she portrayed with her extraordinary performances.
She was born in 1900 in Piraeus. Her father was Vassilis Antonopoulos, a flour mill owner. Her family had great wealth so she could study at conservatories in Geneva, Berlin and Vienna, cultivating with this way her talent in music, singing and acting.
At 17, she got married to the industrialist Giannis Paxinos and they had two daughters. She got divorced after some years, but she kept his last name, which accompanied her in her career. At 34, a dramatic incident marked her life. She lost her first daughter from leukemia. She told in one of her interviews: “I am a human like all others. I lived. I gave birth to children. I buried children. And I felt pain burying those children”.
Her career began in 1920, when she was given the lead role in Beatrice opera, in the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus. It the beginning, she was restricted to lyric roles, but, after 1928, she started to perform with Marika Kotopouli’s theatre group. At her dressing room she met the actor Alexis Minotis, who would be her life partner for the rest of her life. In 1931, she joined Emilios Veakis’ theatre group and she performed in very important plays of worldwide theatre. In 1932, she started her collaboration with National Theatre, which lasted until 1940. With National Theatre she performed in many European countries. When the Second World War broke out, she was in London and decided to move to the USA by ship. Her ship was torpedoed but she was rescued by another anti-torpedo ship.
In the USA she performed in theatres in Broadway. This is where the producers of Paramount Movies discovered her and approached her for the role of Pilar, for Ernest Hemingway’s movie For Whom the Bell Tolls, which is based on his titular book. In the beginning she declaimed, but finally she accepted the role putting her own terms. This role gave to her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 1944 Oscars, in a performance that was deified by the audience and critics. Overall, she took part in 11 movies that helped her to earn worldwide reputation because of her great acting skills and the deepness of her performance. In 1949, she received the Cocteau Prize for her role in Eugene O'Neil's Mourning becomes Electra.
After her triumph in the USA, she returned to Greece in 1950 with Alexis Minotis. They collaborated again with the National Theatre and they went on tours in Europe and the USA. In 1957, she decided to focus on the ancient Greek theatre and on classic plays from all over the world. She portrayed roles from Ekavi, Medea, Vakches and Macbeth on the stages of the National Theatre, the Theatre of Epidaurus and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. In 1968, she established with Alexis Minotis their own theatre company and they gave performances in Athens and Thessaloniki.
Unfortunately, she died in 1973 from cancer. Until the last moment, and despite the strong pain she had, she continued to be in her favorite place: the stage of the theatre. Her last performance in the theatre was in Bertold Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children and in the cinema was the movie Afroditi’s island.
