Aliki Vougiouklaki

Vougiouklaki giving autograph. Israel 1964

Aliki Stamatina Vougiouklaki (Greek: Αλίκη Σταματίνα Βουγιουκλάκη [aˈlici stamaˈtina vuʝuˈklaci]; 20 July 1934 – 23 July 1996) was a Greek actress, best known for her films and theatrical plays, and theatrical producer. She was one of the most popular actresses in Greece, and was given the title of the National Star of Greece. 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.

Vougiouklaki was born in Marousi. Daughter of Emmy Koumoundourou and Ioannis Vougiouklakis, who was the provincial governor of Arcadia in the Peloponnese during the war and was executed by the resistance organization ELAS as a collaborator. She had two brothers, Takis Vougiouklakis (film director) and Antonis (an architect).

As a student, she used to participate in school plays which eventually led her to an acting career. In 1952, she secretly auditioned for National Theatre of Greece, passed the exams and started attending the classes. She graduated 3 years later with Very Good, after receiving Very Good by just one teacher of hers, when the rest of them gave her an Excellent.

Her first theatrical role was in The Imaginary Invalid, Molière, in 1953, while her first movie was in 1954, called The Little Mouse. She appeared in 42 movies, mostly musicals, television programs and theatre productions. She co-starred with Dimitris Papamichail in most of the movies and in a number of theatrical plays.

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, while the movie Ipolochagos Natassa. (1970) is the biggest box office success in Greek Cinema. The following two also belong to her.

In 1961 she established her own theater company and presented successful theatrical plays. In 1962 she was contracted to star in Finos Films' English language film Aliki, My love (also known as Aliki). It premiered in London in June 1963, June 1963 in New York, and in Athens in 1964. It didn't receive the expected success. This failure to break it internationally was the reason she never again attempted an "international movie star" career.

She was popularly known in press as National Star of Greece—a term first coined by journalist Eleni Vlahou in 1959. Her last movie was "Nelly, The Spy" (Κατάσκοπος Νέλλη), in 1981. The decline of Greek Cinema lead her into concentrating on her theatrical career, establishing 53 plays. In 1975 she brought on stage large scale musicals, which changed the usual Greek style of theatrical musical.

In 2008, her son published a biography of Vougiouklaki, Eho Ena Mistiko (I Have A Secret), the title of a songshe sang in ''Maidens' Cheeks. That same year, a television series was broadcast based on the book, aired on Alpha TV channel.

Vougiouklaki married her co-student in National Theater and co-player, Dimitris Papamichail, on 18 January 1965. On 4 June 1969 she gave birth to their child, Yiannis Papamichail. The couple got divorced in 1975, due to "Irreconcilable Differences". In 1992 in an interview with Nikos Hadjinikolaou, Vougiouklaki revealed that she secretly married Giorgos Iliadis, a Greek Cypriot businessman, on 25 January 1982 in Athens. They had met in 1976. The couple got a divorce only a couple of months later, due to Iliadi's personal reasons, which Vougiouklaki respected.

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 canceled, with her last performance onstage being on 28 April.

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

• Chtipokardia sto thranio (1963) was shot simultaneously in Greek and Turkish, with two different crews. Vougiouklaki starred in both versions, with her voice being dubbed in the Turkish version, Siralardaki heyecanlar.
• 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.
• She worked with writer Willy Russell when she performed in Shirley Valentine onstage in 1989.
• Scottish writer Ali Smith used a portrait of Vougiouklaki (from the picture Klotsoskoufi by Dinos Dimopoulos, 1960) in her book Artful about four lectures given at Oxford University by the writer.

Cinema

Television