Biography
Katina Paxinou was a Greek stage and film actress. Born Ekaterini Konstantopoulou on 17 December 1900 in Piraeus, she began her stage career in Greece in 1928 and was a founding member of the National Theatre of Greece in 1932.
The outbreak of the Second World War found her in the United Kingdom; she later moved to the United States. She made her film debut as Pilar in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She appeared in several further Hollywood films, including Mr. Arkadin (1955). She became a naturalised United States citizen in 1951 but returned to Greece the following year, where she continued her stage work and appeared in European films such as Rocco and His Brothers (1960). Paxinou died on 22 February 1973 in Athens.
