Aliki Vougiouklaki

Aliki Vougiouklaki
Native name	Αλίκη Βουγιουκλάκη
Born	Aliki Stamatina Vougiouklaki 20 July 1934 Marousi, Athens Prefecture, Greece
Died	23 July 1996 (aged 62) Athens, Greece
Resting place	Athens, Greece
Occupation	Film and stage actress; singer
Years active	1954–1996
Spouse(s)	Dimitris Papamichail (1965–1975) Giorgos Iliadis (early 1980s-1982)
Children	Yiannis Papamichail (b. 1969)

Aliki Vougiouklaki (Greek: Αλίκη Βουγιουκλάκη; 20 July 1934 – 23 July 1996) was a Greek actress, best known for her films and theatrical plays. Theatrically she has mostly created renditions of widely known Broadway musicals as well as Greek tragedy plays. She died after fighting pancreatic cancer at the age of 62.

Biography

Aliki Stamatina Vougiouklaki was born in Marousi, Athens Prefecture. She had two brothers, Takis (film director) and Antonis (an architect). Her father, Ioannis Vougiouklakis, was the provincial governor of Arcadia in the Peloponnese during the war, and was executed by the resistance organisation ELAS as a collaborator.^[1]

As a student, she took part in school plays which eventually led her to an acting career. She attended classes in National Theatre of Greece and started to act professionally while still a student.

Career

She appeared in 42 movies, mostly musicals, television programs and theatre productions. In the 1960s she co-starred with Dimitris Papamichail in a number of commercially successful movies. I Aliki sto Naftiko (Aliki in the Navy) grossed more than 590,000 tickets. She received the prize for lead woman's role at the inaugural Greek Cinema Festival in Thessaloniki in 1960 for her starring role in Mantalena. Her first film was Nikos Tsiforos The Little Mouse.

In 1962 she was contracted to be the star in Finos Films' English language film Aliki (also known as Aliki, My Love). It premiered in London in June 1963, in New York in December 1963, and in Athens in 1964, but was a flop everywhere, even in her home country.^[2] This was her one and only attempt to become an international movie star.

She was popularly known in press as National Star of Greece^[3] - a term first coined by journalist Eleni Vlahou.^[4] In 1970, she had her biggest film success with Ipolochagos Natassa, about a young Greek woman whose husband was killed during the Second World War; the film sold more than 750,000 tickets.^[5] She appeared in 1981 for the last time on the big screen in Κατάσκοπος Νέλλη (Nellie, the Spy). She made only stage appearances thereafter. . In 2008, her son published a biography of Vougiouklaki, Eho Ena Mistiko (I Have A Secret), the title of a song the actress sang in one of her films. That same year, a television series based on the book, aired on Alpha TV channel.

Personal life

Vougiouklaki and Papamichail got married in the 1960s. On 4 June 1969, Vougiouklaki gave birth to her only child, Yiannis Papamichail. Eventually her marriage to Dimitris Papamichail became troubled. She shot her next film S'Agapo (I Love You), without Papamichail, her usual co-star. In 1974, the couple filed for divorce.^[6] In 1992 in an interview with Nikos Hadjinikolaou, Vougiouklaki revealed that she was secretly married to the Greek Cypriot businessman Giorgos Iliadis without mentioning the exact time the marriage took place nor the period of time it lasted.^[7] In 2008 in an interview at "Simerini", Iliadis was reluctant to reveal details of the marriage, the article though mentioned that it ended in 1982^[8]

Death

In April 1996, while on tour in Thessaloniki performing "The Sound of Music", Vougiouklaki had severe stomachaches, which she believed were caused by the antibiotics she took due to the bronchitis which had been bothering her. After performing tests at the Express Service, a medical diagnostic center in Thessaloniki, she was diagnosed with hepatoma, a malignant tumor in her liver. Not having realized the gravity of the situation, she continued performing for another week before the tour was finally cancelled on April 29.

In Athens, a group of three professor doctors discovered that the actress had pancreatic cancer. On May 7, she traveled to Munich, where she underwent a series of additional tests during the three days she stayed there. On May 10, Vougiouklaki returned to Greece. On May 15, she made her last trip to Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S. in a final effort to be cured. On May 19, she returned permanently to Athens and finally, on May 22 entered the Athens Medical Center.^[9][10][11] On July 14 she fell into hepatic coma and had no communication with those around her. After two months of hospitalization, Vougiouklaki died on July 23, 1996 at 10:15 in Athens Medical Center.^[12] Her funeral was held in Athens Cathedral on July 25, 1996 and she was buried in the First Cemetery of Athens.

Filmography

Cinema

Television

Trivia

• Chtipokardia sto thranio (1963) was shot simultaneously in Greek and Turkish, with two different crews. Aliki starred in both versions, with her voice being dubbed in the Turkish version, Siralardaki heyecanlar.^[22][23][24]
• The film, Ipolochagos Natassa (1970) sold 751,000 tickets in Athens, which made it the most successful film in Greece, a record held for almost three decades before being broken by Safe Sex.^[5]
• She worked with writer Willy Russell when she performed in Shirley Valentine onstage in 1989.

References

1. ↑ Interview with ELAS member Christos Koutsouyeros (in Greek), retrieved 26 February 2014 
2. ↑ Greek Reporter, 5 April 2014: Aliki Vougiouklaki’s 1962 Forgotten Debut Movie in English Linked 2014-06-26
3. ↑ Aliki Vouyouklaki profile, britannica.com; accessed 26 February 2014.
4. ↑ "Extras", a page from alikivougiouklaki.us website
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 greektenies.com
6. ↑ "Details about Vougiouklaki-Papamichail divorce with photocopy of the original divorce document", paraskhnio.gr; accessed 10 April 2014.
7. ↑ mixanitouxronou.gr
8. ↑ simerini.com.cy
9. ↑ webpressunion.blogspot.gr
10. ↑ zappit.gr
11. ↑ ola-ta-kala.blogspot.gr
12. ↑ oneirodrama.blogspot.co.il
13. ↑ Thessaloniki International Film Festival Award Winners of 1960; accessed 10 April 2014.
14. ↑ Hit-Channel.com - Back in time | Ο πρώτος χρυσός δίσκος που απονεμήθηκε στην Ελλάδα
15. ↑ E-Orfeas.gr - Τα ρεκόρ του ελληνικού τραγουδιού
16. ↑ Tovivlio.gr - Ο πρώτος χρυσός δίσκος της ελληνικής δισκογραφίας
17. ↑ google.gr, Thessaloniki International Film Festival Award Winners of 1960
18. ↑ Aliki My Love profile; accessed 26 February 2014.
19. ↑ RetroDB.gr - Βασίλισσα Αμαλία (1975)
20. ↑ RetroDB.gr - Η Θεατρίνα (1977)
21. ↑ RetroDB.gr - Δέκα Μικροί Μήτσοι
22. ↑ paraskhnio.gr
23. ↑ sakketosaggelos.gr
24. ↑ grtrnews.com

External links

• Aliki Vougiouklaki at the Internet Movie Database
• Aliki Vougiouklaki profile, Cine.gr (Greek)