MELINA MERCOURI

Melina Mercouri was a Greek actress from the 1950s to the 1970s. She was far from an overnight success, not appearing in her first movie until she was 35! In 1960, she went to Greece with director Jules Dassin (who she later married), and she starred in his movie, Pote tin Kyriaki (released in the U.S. as Never On Sunday), about an American who tries to convince a free-spirited prostitute to change her life, but she is happy as she is, and Mercouri, though she was 40 years old, was largely responsible for the movie being a huge international hit. She was an early feminist, and she entered politics in Greece, and she was in the Greek Parliament and the Minister of Culture. She passed away in 1994 at the age of 73. She was survived by Dassin, who lived until 2008, passing away at the age of 96.