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Melina Mercouri
(Μελίνα
Μερκούρη;
Athens,October 18, 1920 – New York, March 6,
1994) was a Greece|Greek actress and political
activist.  Born Anna Amalia Mercouri or Maria
Amalia Mercouris, she became well-known to
international audiences when she starred in the
1960 film Never on Sunday, directed by her husband
Jules Dassin.  In fact, she had been making movies
since 1955, first appearing in the Greek language
film Stella (film)|Stella.
Nominated for an Academy Award for Never on
Sunday, she went on to star in such films as
Topkapi (movie)|Topkapi, Phaedra (movie)|Phaedra,
and Gaily, Gaily.

During the period of dictatorship in Greece from
1967 to 1974, Mercouri lived in France.  When the
dictatorship revoked her Greek citizenship, she
said, "I was born Greek and I would die Greek. Mr.
Pattakos was born a dictator and he will die as a
dictator." 

When democracy returned to her home country, she
returned, and became first a member of the
Parliament for PASOK, and then Minister of
Culture. 

In 1971 she wrote her autobiography, I Was Born
Greek.