Katina Paxinou

 

 

Katina Paxinou                                               ΚΑΤΙΝΑ ΠΑΧΙΝΟΥ

Born 1900                                                        Died 1973

                                        

 

Section 2, Number 63A

Katina Paxinou, articulate on and off stage, passionate about her craft, and with an uncanny ability to become the person she was bringing to life on the stage, was a phenomenon in a theatre world full of talented actors and actresses.  In her long career she had many firsts. She was the first actress to set foot on the Epidauros stage after more than two thousand years, the first star of the National Theatre of Greece to open at the Herodion in Athens and, in 1944, was the first Greek actress to win an Oscar for best supporting role in  For Whom the Bell Tolls. During the Second World War, the British air force dropped leaflets announcing her Oscar win over war torn Greece - a use of military resources that might not have appealed to every faction fighting on the ground – but one regarded as an important morale booster for the population at large. She was that famous - and would remain so until her death in 1973.  The number of roles she played over her long career is just astounding. (1) She and her partner Alexis Minotis thrived in the environment of the National Theatre of Greece and greatly contributed to its success as an institution.  

 

A publicity shot taken in Hollywood in the 40s

Her Early Life

Katina was born in Piraeus in 1900, the fourth of the seven children of wealthy Vasilis Konstantopoulos and Eleni Malandrinos.  Vasilis was a grain merchant and flour manufacturer and the family lived in a home built by famous neoclassical architect Ernst Ziller, in a neighbourhood with similarly well off neighbours.  Their economic situation allowed for nannies who could teach the children English and French and for the young Katina to attend, first the Hill School in the Plaka and later the Ursuline School on Tinos, both educational institutions famous for their contribution to Greek education.  She was a tomboy from the get go and a rebel too. Being the fourth child may have made it easier for her to escape parental oversight – that and the ability to climb down the drainpipe from her second floor bedroom to join her friends when she had been seemingly corralled for the evening. A neighbour, artist Yiannis Tsarouchis, later recalled that from their childhood days she was great fun, a natural leader, and a wonderful singer.

The educational institutions she attended were less lyrical in her praise and one requested that her family remove her because they could not manage her and she was a bad influence on the other children. Her father’s death when she was eight placed her under the control of a harassed mother who, unable to tame her high spirits, sent her to a Swiss boarding school at the age of nine with an older sister as chaperone.

 

A defiant 10 year old

 

While in Switzerland, the 11 year old Katina wanted desperately to enter the  Geneva Conservatory.  At first she was rejected because it did not accept students under 14. Refusing to take no for an answer, she dressed up in her older sister’s clothes and auditioned again, this time not mentioning her age. She succeeded in the end because it was agreed that her voice was mature for her age and an exception could be made.  There she studied piano and voice and received a Gold Medal for excellence. In spite of this, her mother was dead against her pursuing a professional singing career. Singing at a concert for charity or at neighbours’ houses was fine - but young ladies of her class did not pursue ‘careers’.

Her first stage performance was at a charity concert  in Piraeus in 1914 and then in 1915 at the Royal Theatre. On her second appearance there she was accompanied by the great composer Attik, singing his musical success I Have Seen Many Eyes (Είδα Μάτια Πολλά) still a great song.(2)  At small soirees and concerts, she was sometimes accompanied by Dimitris Mitropoulos, then a young music student in the Athens Conservatory. Their early collaborations would prove to be important for both and were the basis of a lifelong friendship.

Marriage at Seventeen

If nine seems young to be sent abroad and fourteen to debut as a singer, marriage at seventeen seems early by today’s standards as well, but marry she did - to businessman,  Ioannis Paxinos.  He was well off, and debonair, and part of a family with business interests in Romania.  Ioannis was a writer and theatre lover as well as a businessman and, unlike her mother, he had promised not to interfere with her career ambitions. (3)

By the age of 21 she had produced two children (Ethel and Ileana) and had sung the lead in an opera - Beatrice at the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus with music composed by her friend Dimitris Mitropoulos. It was an important start for both of them.

 

The Municipal Theatre advertised this as a miracle in three acts, - with an orchestra of sixty instruments!

 

Katina at 20 as Beatrice

After such a triumph, having to accompany her husband to Romania for his business interests must have caused a few pangs of regret.  In 1922, she was again focusing on her career and travelled to Vienna where she fell under the spell of the music of Richard Wagner and its possibilities for her voice.

Early promises notwithstanding, by 1923 the marriage was not working and the couple divorced.  Katina left her children in her husband’s care and went abroad, this time to Berlin. Her mother refused to help economically, so she struggled during this period, often visited by her friend Dimitris Mitropoulos who was working with the Berlin State Opera at the time.

 

Katina (on the right) in 1926. She is with actress Eleni Papadaki.

Her future as a Wagnerian singer seemed assured. How could she have known then that her life would be turned upside the evening she met actor Alexis Minotis in the dressing room of actress Marika Kotopouli?

Alexis Minotis and a Small Digression

 

Alexis, born in Crete in 1900, a bad student but an avid reader, was not at all happy about the secure accountancy career his parents had planned for him at the Bank of Athens. He quit after one year. Sure of what he did not want, but less sure of what he did, he found himself answering a local add placed by the Athenian Viaki-Iatridou-Nezer Acting Troupe in 1922. They needed extras for their Cretan production of Oedipus Tyrannus (Oedipus Rex).  Alexis applied, liked what he saw, and joined the troupe. In the grand tradition of such stories, he got a chance for bigger roles when an actor became ill.  

This sort of apprenticeship undergone by Alexis was the only way into the acting profession in the 1920s. The state’s effort to start a Theatre School under the aegis of the Royal Theatre had failed after a lot of fanfare and high hopes. It had been under the direct patronage of King George I and had opened its doors in 1901 on Agiou Constantinou Street in an elegant building purpose built by the great Ernst Ziller and financed by the wealthy benefactor Efstathios Rallis.

 

Ziller’s building on Agiou Constaninou Street.

It had lasted only until 1908 when severe economic problems caused it to close its doors. Athenians preferred reviews, satires and farces – at least when it came to paying for their entertainment. That had left the field open to entrepreneur-actors with troupes like that of Marika Kotopouli.

Marika was a human dynamo and she somehow managed to maintain a theatre in Athens, keep the flame of good drama alive, and still stay solvent. To succeed economically, these troops had to travel to wherever there was a Greek audience to be had.  It was a risky business and each troupe member had to learn many parts in case a play that did not please a local audience could be ditched for one that did, and to help out in any capacity required by the situation. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn the craft but required budding actors with nerve, versatility, and a strong constitution: all those short whistle stops and cheap rooms and food their budgets could afford!

 

Marika Kotopouli

 

Alexis was lucky enough to join Kotopouli’s troupe in 1925 and did very well. He travelled a great deal and got parts in Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Athens and Sophocles’ Antigone presented at the Herodion among others. (4)   

The Meeting

In 1828, Katina had come to Marika’s dressing room and Alexis was there.  He would later say:

Her strong individuality really struck me and I wanted to meet her again. This first meeting was very important. ...Katina had gone to Berlin to become a Wagnerian singer. In discussions we had, I tried to persuade her that Greek mythology was of a higher order – all to persuade her that leaving singing and that acting in ancient Greek drama was a higher calling.

 She was equally impressed, and his advice had immediate effect. She abandoned her studies, not even returning to Berlin to pick up her belongings. Almost overnight, she had found her soul mate, acting partner, and a whole new career.  Her first stage appearance occurred almost immediately in Henry Bataille’s The Naked Woman. She was 28 years old.

Alexis and Katina visited America with Kotopouli’s troupe in 1931.  Greeks living in New York, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, were hungry for Greek theatre too and the company was welcomed everywhere. (5)  Katina’s letters home were full of the wonders of New York. She stayed in a six dollar a night hotel in Times Square whereas Marika, was ensconced at the Ambassador.  These were early days and Katina didn’t care; a room with its own bath and 10 dollars a day spending money was luxury enough! The troop returned to Greece without Marika, so Alexis and Katina briefly joined the troupe of veteran actor Amilios Veakis.

Who knows what might have happened next had the Greek National Theatre not opened its doors in Ziller’s fabulous building on Agiou Constantinou Street after a hiatus of 24 years?  There, they would find their spiritual and professional home.

The National Theatre of Greece

The National Theatre was founded in 1930 by an act of parliament signed by education minister Georgios Papandreau.  Ioannis Griparis became the first general manager, and Fotis Politis the first director. They were excellent choices.  It was a reprise, really, of the Royal Theatre - and no accident that an education minister was involved. The aim was to create a permanent troupe of actors who could, through their productions (both ancient and modern), educate their own citizenry and promote Greek culture abroad. The Theatre Drama School would assure a continuous flow of talent. To ensure the quality and continuity of stage productions, there would be a permanent set designer and costumer, something the Royal Theatre had lacked. Luckily Kleovoulos Klonis (Κλεόβουλος Κλώνης) and costumer, Antonis Fokas (Αντώνης Φωκάς) filled these posts brilliantly for many, many years.

The National might have become cliquish and inbred and, no doubt was at times, but the problem was mostly avoided because there was such a huge well of talent in Greece to draw from in the 30s:  writers like Spiros Melas, Grigorios Xenopoulos, and Costis Palamas , musicians like, Dimitris Mitropoulos, and artists like Nikos Hatzikyriakos – Ghikas were invited to participate. The Greek cultural world was small enough that the greats knew each other and shared a common cultural goal.

The theatre opened its doors On  March 19, 1932 with two productions:   Aeschylusʼ  Agamemnon and Sublime Dream by Grigorios Xenopoulos.  In the ancient drama Katina played Clytemnestra and Alexis, the herald.

 

Reviews praised her using her maiden name.  Her mother made it clear that this particular Constantopoulou was no relation of hers. From that point on, Katina used the name Paxinou.

1932-1941

Katina and Alexis dominated the National Theatre during the 30s although, ironically, neither had benefitted from the formal training the Theatre now offered. Katina had no acting training at all and rose to stardom through her musical training and her innate dramatic flair. I suspect that she was simply a natural born diva.  There is no doubt that their bond as a couple enabled them to succeed. She excelled in playing dynamic women in unusual situations whether it was as Phaedra, Clytemnestra, Electra,  or Abby (Desire Under the Elms)  Mrs Alving in Ibsens’ Ghosts, or Gertrude in Hamlet. Her range was tremendous and she was equally comfortable in Comedies such as Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan.  If well received, the same productions were presented again and again. Katina had a lot to offer. She translated Eugene O’Neill into Greek and, in a production of Oedipus Tyrranus , played Jocasta and wrote the music. It was a wonderful decade for Katina, marred only by the tragic death at 16 of her eldest daughter Ethel in 1934.

Electra

 

Perhaps her most famous role in ancient drama, Electra premiered in the Herodion in Athens in October of 1936 and was a critical triumph. The nuances of her presentation: her voice, its range, her movements, her timing, all held audiences in thrall. One enthusiastic critic wrote : your voice fractures rocks (Η φωνή σας ραγίζει πέτρες) (6)–– The literal translation into English completely misses the meaning: “fracturing rocks” was the highest praise! On a personal level it a triumph as well; her mother finally accepted her daughter’s career choice. 

 

Electra was presented often over the next few years, the most memorable being Epidavros in 1939. It was an historic moment and the beginning of a tradition that continues to this day. She was one of the first to step on that stage in an ancient tragedy in over 2,000 years.

 

Rehearsal at Epidavros in 1939

In the same year, the troupe travelled to London and Berlin and, in a bizarre precursor of things to come, the cast took a triumphant curtain call with bouquets wrapped in swastikas at their feet.

 

Katina in the centre, Alexis to the right

Oblivious to the coming war, Katina went to Paris on a visit and the opening of hostilities found her there. She managed to return to Greece after many frightening delays.

Marriage, America and an Oscar

She and Alexis had married quietly in Athens in March of 1940 and then she left for England to play in a British production of Ibsen’s Ghosts. The war caught up with her again and, only after help in high places and the harrowing experience of being torpedoed at sea, was she finally able to reach America in the spring of 1941. There, she would spend the war years and begin an entirely new phase of her career, this time in cinema.

Alexis had his own adventures attempting to escape Greece (7) and was not able to join her until a year later. It was a nerve wracking time; neither was sure where the other was. Katina was determined to help with the war effort in any way she could and did so, including an address to the Greek nation in January of 1942 in which she offered what encouragement she could.

Her stage career was on hold because of the war so she reluctantly (at first) agreed to go to Hollywood to play the role of Pilar in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, a role that won her the Oscar in 1944.

 

as Pilar

The American interlude was a strange time in many ways.  She had a five year contract with Paramount pictures and played in quite a few forgettable American movies (8).  She and Alexis bought a house in Hollywood and became neighbours and friends with the likes of Gregory Peck and Jean Renoir as well as other Hollywood luminaries.

 

(She only made one Greek film – in 1969)

When the war ended, her praise of Greeks fighting in the mountains and her statements that Greeks must decide their own destiny got her into difficulties. Some accused her of leftist sympathies. Katina had missed the war in Greece and the conflicts and hatred it had festered created between left and right during that period. The National Theatre had continued under a new manager during the occupation, even tailoring their productions to suit their new audience. When the Germans withdrew, many in the company were blamed for their wartime allegiances and members scrambled to make sure they were on the right side of history – no easy thing during that period.  EleniPapadaki who had been National’s greatest star during Katina’s absence was brutally murdered by left wing fanatics during the 1944 December uprising. (9)

 

Eleni Papadaki

Katina and Alexis would stay away until 1950 when invited by Georgios Theotokas to play, once again, in Ibsen’s Ghosts. It opened on November 10, 1950. At fifty, Katina Paxinou was back home.

1950-73

When she played Electra in 1952, critics groused that she was too old for the part. They had a point, but she had other roles up her sleeve including in the lead in Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba (1951 in New York and 1954 in Greece) and  Blood Wedding.  She added Medea to her already large repertoire of ancient plays during the fifties. There seemed to be no role she could not play well.

 

Medea

She was as comfortable playing modern drama and ancient roles in London or New York as she was in Athens – and as popular.

During the Military dictatorship, another test for the National Theatre, Katina  Minotis created their own troupe and staged, among many other plays, various works by Lorca (Blood Wedding), and Sean O’Casey (Juno and the Paycock) among others.  Her last appearance in theatre was Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children.

To list the roles she played throughout her life would need a weighty tome like the one published in 1997  by the Bank of Greece.

 

It is well worth finding

Her Death

Katina died after a long battle with cancer in Athens on 22 February 1973. She was survived by her daughter Ileana and beloved grandchildren as well. Alexis continued his career until his death in 1990.

 

Her funeral cortege leaving the Metropolitan church for the cemetery. And as always, the audience is clapping.

The Grave

 

Section Two, Number 63A

For a woman with such a flair and mobile face, I have to say the bust by Marios Loverdos is a bit of a disappointment

The Map

 

Footnotes

(1)   An exhaustive list of her work is given in the Paxinou/Minotis put out by the National Bank of Greece in 1997.

(2)   Youtube offers many versions of this popular song, but not Katina’s’.

(3)   Marriage was sometimes the only way out for budding actresses from a strict family. Melina Mercouri also married young for much the same reason.

(4)   Theo Angelopoulos’s film The Troupe (Ο Θίασος) is a great introduction to the life of travelling players in the  Greek provinces from the 30s to the 60s)

(5)   Greek politicians have taken a great interest in promoting the arts since the country’s formation. Marika went to the U.S. armed with a letter to the Greek ambassador from Eleftherios Venizelos himself asking that they be received well.

(6)   I first heard this phrase in the Mani when the villagers were praising the poetic chants of the Mirologistes after a funeral in Aereopolis. It enchanted me at the time- especially given the geography of the Mani!

(7)   Minotis deserves a text of his own. His wartime adventures were so exciting that a film was in the works in Hollywood to depict them. The project never got off the groun because the war ended.

(8)   I do not think Katina could ever be bad but her heavy Greek accent did put some movie critics off, especially if she was not playing a Mediterranean type. One exception to her b lust movies was Rocco and His Brothers, a real 1960 Visconti classic. Playing an Italian, of course.

(9)     Eleni Papadaki is also buried in the first and we have told her story. See http://athensfirstcemeteryinenglish.blogspot.com/2017/04/eleni-papadaki.html