--- name: "Irene Papas" canonical: "https://film.one/person/irene-papas" roles: ["Actor"] born: "3 September 1929" died: "14 September 2022" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 71 average_as: "actor" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-09-20T05:14:25.946717+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Irene Papas Actor. Born 3 September 1929 in Chiliomodi, Corinth, Greece. Died 14 September 2022. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 3 September 1929, Chiliomodi, Corinth, Greece - **Died:** 14 September 2022 - **Active:** 1961–1969 - **Also known as:** Ирен Папас, Ειρήνη Παπά, Ειρήνη Παππά, Eirini Leleku, إيرين باباس, Eiríni Pappá, Irene Pappas - **Frequently works with:** [Anthony Quayle](https://film.one/person/anthony-quayle.md), [Anthony Quinn](https://film.one/person/anthony-quinn.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 71, as actor, over 4 titles - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 1 of 4 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 4, Adventure 1, Crime 1, History 1, Romance 1, Thriller 1 - **Screen time:** 9 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $38m across 3 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Papas, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q230563, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0660327/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/18847 ## Streaming the US now - **HBO Max:** [*Z*](https://film.one/film/z.md) (84) - **Netflix:** [*The Guns of Navarone*](https://film.one/film/the-guns-of-navarone.md) (74) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Irene Papas > Irene Papas could hold a scene without saying a word in it, and she was at her best when a director let her: still, watchful, and giving the men around her nothing. Cacoyannis knew what to do with that; Hollywood mostly did not. The widow in *Zorba the Greek* (1964) walks through her village and Michael Cacoyannis does not cut to her. He cuts to the men watching, one face after another, and to the boy following at a distance. Papas has said nothing and done nothing, and we felt sick, because she plays the part in her shoulders and her eyes as a woman who has decided the only defence left to her is to give the village nothing. It is the charged strand in a film otherwise busy watching Anthony Quinn dance, and it is the clearest example of what she could do that most actors cannot: make standing still look like a decision. She came out of Greek theatre and film in the late 1940s, trained in Athens, and the wider world noticed her in *The Guns of Navarone* (1961), as the resistance fighter Maria, looking at the commandos as if she had already buried several like them. Then came the Cacoyannis years. They made five films together, and the ones that matter are the tragedies: *Electra* (1962), which made her the screen's leading interpreter of the Greek plays, *The Trojan Women* (1971), in which she is Helen, and *Iphigenia* (1977), in which she is Clytemnestra. Between them sits *Z* (1969), a political thriller in which, as Hélène, she does most of her work in close-up with hardly a line to speak. The tragedies suited her because they ask for exactly what she had: a face that could carry grief without commentary, and the nerve to hold it while the camera waited. The criticism, and it is a fair one, is that the theatre never quite left her, and in *Iphigenia* the classical manner can tip into declaiming, lines pitched at the back of a house the camera is not sitting in. Hollywood had a different problem with her. The accent and the face that made her unmistakable also narrowed what she was offered, and she spent much of her international career in parts smaller than her talent, watching from the edge of the frame while the stars talked. Her own account of it was simpler than any of ours: "I am those characters . . . That passion is my truth." Start with *Zorba* if you want to see what the fuss is about, and watch her strand rather than his; then find *Electra*, where nobody walks in front of her. She kept working into the early 2000s and died in 2022. The films that show her best are the ones built around her stillness, and there were fewer of those than there should have been. ## Biography Irene Papas was a Greek actress who appeared in more than 70 films over a career of more than five decades. She trained at the National Theatre of Greece Drama School and began working in theatre before making her film debut in 1948. She gained international recognition for her role as Maria Pappadimos in *The Guns of Navarone* (1961). Other notable performances include those in *Zorba the Greek* (1964), *Z* (1969), *Antigone* (1961), *Electra* (1962), *The Trojan Women* (1971) and *Iphigenia* (1977). She also recorded albums of Greek songs. Papas received a Best Actress award at the Berlin International Film Festival for *Antigone* and a National Board of Review award for *The Trojan Women*. She died in 2022. *Sources: imdb.com, nytimes.com, theguardian.com.* ## On Fi1m (4) - *Anne of the Thousand Days* (1969), Fi1m 60, as Queen Catherine — [page](https://film.one/film/anne-of-the-thousand-days.md) - *Z* (1969), Fi1m 84, as Hélène — [page](https://film.one/film/z.md) - *Zorba the Greek* (1964), Fi1m 67, as Widow — [page](https://film.one/film/zorba-the-greek.md) - *The Guns of Navarone* (1961), Fi1m 74, as Maria Pappadimos — [page](https://film.one/film/the-guns-of-navarone.md) ## Complete filmography (79) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *1821 at the Cinema* (2021), as (archive footage) - *Morceaux de Cannes* (2021), Actor - *A Talking Picture* (2003), as Helena - *Short Cuts* (2002), series, as Pensioner - *...and the train leaves for the sky* (2001), as Elena Michailovna - *Captain Corelli's Mandolin* (2001), as Drosoula - *Yerma* (1999), as Vieja pagana - *Inquietude* (1998), as Mother - *The Odyssey* (1997), series, as Anticlea - *Party* (1996), as Irene - *Jacob* (1994), as Rebekka - *Un Amore Rubato* (1993), Actor - *Lettera da Parigi* (1993), as Gina - *Up, Down and Sideways* (1992), as Μαρία - *Enopios Enopio* (1991), series, as Guest - *Island* (1989), as Marquise - *Oceano* (1989), series, as Aurelia Perdomo - *Plato's Banquet* (1989), as Diotime - *La Valise en carton* (1988), series, as Maria Amélia, la mère de Linda - *Ein Kind mit Namen Jesus* (1987), series, as Old Maria - *High Season* (1987), as Penelope - *Chronicle of a Death Foretold* (1987), as Madre de Angela - *Sweet Country* (1987), as Mrs. Araya - *A Child Called Jesus* (1987), as Old Maria - *The Assisi Underground* (1985), as Mother Giuseppina - *Into the Night* (1985), as Shaheen Parvici - *Afghanistan For What?* (1984), Actor - *Erendira* (1983), as Grandmother Amadis - *The Deserter* (1983), as Mariangela - *The Balad of Mamelouk* (1982), as Mamluk's Mother - *Lion of the Desert* (1981), as Mabrouka - *L'assistente sociale tutto pepe...* (1981), as La Signora - *Ring of Darkness* (1979), as Raffaella - *Bloodline* (1979), as Simonetta Palazzi - *Christ Stopped at Eboli* (1979), as Giulia Venere - *Iphigenia* (1977), as Klytaimnistra - *Blood Wedding* (1977), as La mère - *Moses the Lawgiver* (1976), as Zippora - *The Message* (1976), as Hind - *Moses the Lawgiver* (1974), series, as Zipporah - *Bambina* (1974), as Raimonda Spina - *The Battle of Sutjeska* (1973), as Borina majka - *1931: Once Upon a Time in New York* (1973), as Donna Mimma - *Don't Torture a Duckling* (1972), as Dona Aurelia Avallone - *N.P. - The Secret* (1972), as Casalinga - *The Murder of Julius Caesar* (1972), as Calpurnia - *Roma bene* (1971), as Elena Teopoulos - *Oasis of Fear* (1971), as Barbara Slater - *The Trojan Women* (1971), as Helen - *Anne of the Thousand Days* (1969), as Queen Catherine — Fi1m 60, [page](https://film.one/film/anne-of-the-thousand-days.md) - *A Dream of Kings* (1969), as Caliope - *The Odyssey* (1969), as Penelope - *Z* (1969), as Hélène — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/z.md) - *Behold Man - The Survivors* (1969), as Anna - *The Brotherhood* (1968), as Ida Ginetta - *The Odyssey* (1968), series, as Penelope - *The Desperate Ones* (1967), as Ajmi - *Witness Out of Hell* (1967), as Lea Weiss - *We Still Kill the Old Way* (1967), as Luisa Roscio - *Trap for the Assassin* (1966), as Julia de Noirville - *The Steps* (1966), as Joana - *Zorba the Greek* (1964), as Widow — Fi1m 67, [page](https://film.one/film/zorba-the-greek.md) - *The Moon-Spinners* (1964), as Sophia - *Electra* (1962), as Elektra - *Antigone* (1961), as Antigone - *The Guns of Navarone* (1961), as Maria Pappadimos — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/the-guns-of-navarone.md) - *The Lake of Sighs* (1959), as Frosyni - *Bouboulina* (1959), as Laskarina Bouboulina - *Pssst ... girls!* (1959), as Eleni - *Tribute to a Bad Man* (1956), as Jocasta Constantine - *The Missing Scientists* (1954), as Gina - *Attila* (1954), as Grune - *Climax!* (1954), series, as Maxanne York - *Theodora, Slave Empress* (1954), as Faidia - *Vortice* (1953), as Clara - *The Man From Cairo* (1953), as Yvonne Lebeau - *The Unfaithfuls* (1953), as Luisa Azzali - *Dead City* (1951), as Lena - *Fallen Angels* (1948), as Liana ## Gallery - ![Photo of actress Irene Papas. (1956)](https://film.one/media/person/1240662/gallery-6af34ddc0381.jpg) Photo of actress Irene Papas. (1956) — MGM, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Irene_Papas_1956.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Photo of actress Irene Papas from the television program MGM Parade. There are no copyright marks on the item, which can be seen at the link.](https://film.one/media/person/1240662/gallery-b29735aa3418.jpg) Photo of actress Irene Papas from the television program MGM Parade. There are no copyright marks on the item, which can be seen at the link. — ABC Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Irene_Papas_1956_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Irene Papas](https://film.one/media/person/1240662/gallery-eb34a129713f.jpg) Irene Papas — Josef Shaftel Productions Inc., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Irene_Papas_%22The_Trojan_Women%22.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Irene Papas in una scena del film italiano Ecce Homo - I sopravvissuti (1969)](https://film.one/media/person/1240662/gallery-11d8eb9be274.png) Irene Papas in una scena del film italiano Ecce Homo - I sopravvissuti (1969) — Bruno Gaburro (director), GI Film (production), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Ecce_Homo_%281969%29_Irene_Papas.png/1280px-Ecce_Homo_%281969%29_Irene_Papas.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Irene Papas](https://film.one/media/person/1240662/gallery-a18f34b6132a.jpg) Irene Papas — Image via TMDB - ![Irene Papas](https://film.one/media/person/1240662/gallery-b5d75df85ae1.jpg) Irene Papas — Image via TMDB - ![Irene Papas](https://film.one/media/person/1240662/gallery-321a3cd21839.jpg) Irene Papas — Image via TMDB - ![Irene Papas](https://film.one/media/person/1240662/gallery-8bf477174218.jpg) Irene Papas — Image via TMDB - ![Irene Papas](https://film.one/media/person/1240662/gallery-a474f5c2e395.jpg) Irene Papas — Image via TMDB - ![Irene Papas](https://film.one/media/person/1240662/gallery-e0a98fd38eb6.jpg) Irene Papas — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 3 won - honorary doctorate at the University of Rome Tor Vergata 2001: honorary doctorate at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (won) - Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres 1995: Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres (won) - National Board of Review Award for Best Actress 1971: National Board of Review Award for Best Actress (won), for *The Trojan Women* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/irene-papas