Biography for
Katina Paxinou More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

17 December 1900, Piraeus, Athens, Greece

Date of Death

22 February 1973, Athens, Greece (cancer)

Birth Name

Ekaterini Konstantopoulou

Mini Biography

Katina Paxinou was born in 1900, in Piraeus, Greece. She first appeared on stage in 1928, in an Athens production of Henry Bataille's "La femme nue". In the early 1930's she was one of the founding members of the Greek Royal Theater (which later was named Greek National Theater) and performed several major roles in Sophocles' "Electra", Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" etc, often co-starring with her husband, Alex Minotis. The outbreak of the Second World War found her in UK; she later managed to arrive at the US, where she was offered her first film role in 1943 in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). She won raves for her superb portrayal of Pilar, a Spanish revolutionary, in this Ernest Hemingway adaptation and won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award (and a Golden Globe) in 1944. She made a few more Hollywood movies, before returning to Greece in the early 1950's. During 1950 - 1971 she gave excellent performances in Christopher Fry's "The Dark Is Light Enough", Friedrich Dürrenmatt's "The Visit" (as Claire Zahanassian), Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" (as Iocasta), Euripides' "Hecuba" (title role) and Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage" (title role). She also starred in some other movies; she was particularly touching as the Italian matriarch in the Luchino Visconti masterpiece Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960). She died of cancer in 1973 and is justly considered as the greatest Greek actress of the 20th century.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Thanassis Agathos

Spouse

Ioannis Paxinos	(1916 - ?) (divorced) 2 children
Alex Minotis	(? - 22 February 1973) (her death)

Trivia

Grandmother of Alexandros Antonopoulos

She and her husband, stage director/actor Alex Minotis, were generally considered the Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne of their theatre generation. Their greatest fame came after their return to Greece from Hollywood in the 50s when they rejoined the (now renamed) Greek National Theatre and participated in such acclaimed productions as "Hecuba," "Oedipus Rex" and "Medea.".

First non-American actress to win an Oscar for "Best Actress in a Supporting Role"

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