Born 1926 near Corinth, Greece, as Irini Lelekou (Papas comes from a brief teenage marriage; she has never remarried), Irene Papas has been, after Melina Mercouri, Greece's best-known actress internationally. She debuted in a Greek film in 1948, but after a supporting role in the Italian Attila with Anthony Quinn (the first of seven roles with him), her first major performance came in Hollywood, opposite James Cagney in Robert Wise's Western Tribute to a Badman (1956).
In 1961 she appeared to great acclaim in the title role of Antigone, the first of four adaptations of classical tragedy over the years (the title role in Electra, Clytemnestra in Iphigenia, and Helen in The Trojan Women opposite Katharine Hepburn and an all-star international cast). In the 70s and 80s she emerged as a singing star, issuing a number of albums, one of which was censored in Greece during the colonels' regime.
Rialto Pictures