Popular Greek actress Irene Papas made her screen acting debut in 1948 with a minor role in the Greek film ‘Fallen Angels’. She achieved recognition with her portrayal of Lena in her second film ‘Dead City’. This 1951 Frixos Iliasis directed Greek drama film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and was later also used to launch her acting career in Italy after she signed up with the Italian film distribution company Lux Films. In 1953, she appeared in numerous films in Italy like ‘The Unfaithfuls’, ‘Come Back!’ and ‘Vortex’ and also made her Hollywood debut with a small role in the B-movie ‘The Man from Cairo’. The following year she bagged more attention from Hollywood by playing the role of Faidia in the adventure romance drama film ‘Theodora, Slave Empress’ and Grune in the biographical historical drama movie ‘Attila’. Her performance as Gina in the 1955 film ‘The Missing Scientists’ was followed by her second Hollywood project ‘Tribute to a Bad Man’ which released in 1956 and had her in the role of Jocasta Constantine. In the rest of the 1950s, she made quick appearances in television series ‘The Three Musketeers’ (1956), ‘Studio One’ (1957), ‘Kraft Theatre’, ‘Matinee Theatre’ and ‘Climax!’ (all 1958) and appeared in films like ‘The Lake of Sighs’, ‘Hey, Girls!’ and ‘Bouboulina’ (all 1959).
The 1960s saw her working in some of the most significant films of her career. Irene Papas appeared in the title role of two films that were based on ancient Greek tragedies. These movies – ‘Antigone’ (1961) and ‘Electra’ (1962) – saw her playing doomed heroines brilliantly. The two movies established her as a star and bagged her Thessaloniki Film Festival Greek Competition Award in the best actress category. For ‘Electra’ she also received the Hellenic Association of Film Critics Award at the 1962 Thessaloniki Film Festival while for ‘Antigone’, she bagged the best actress honours at the 11th Berlin International Film Festival.
In 1961 again, Irene Papas played the role of Maria Pappadimos, a resistance fighter and a strong female character in J lee Thompson directed epic adventure war film ‘The Guns of Navarone’ while in 1964, she was seen in the role of a widow in the comedy drama film ‘Zorba the Greek’. While the former movie has 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the latter movie stands at 77% score. The latter movie also established her international reputation as a star. In 1969, she once again won critical acclaim for the portrayal of Helene, a political activist's widow in the Algerian French political thriller film ‘Z’. The movie has a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes and her performance in the film has been called ‘indelible’.
Some of her other film work during the 1960s include, ‘Trap for the Assassin’, (1966), ‘We Still Kill the Old Way’ (1967), ‘The Brotherhood’ (1968), ‘A Dream of Kings’ and ‘Anne of the Thousand Days’ (both 1969). In 1968, she also became a part of the eight-part European Tv miniseries ‘The Odyssey’.
The 1971 American-British-Greek drama film ‘The Trojan Women’ yet again won her critical acclaim with Alejandro Valverde García describing her part as "the most convincing cinematographic Helen that has ever been represented". It also got her the National Board of Review Best actress award in 1971. Irene Papas’s other notable films of 1970s include ‘Don't Torture a Duckling’ (1972), ‘The Message’ (1976), ‘Iphigenia’ (1977) and ‘Christ Stopped at Eboli’ (1979). Her portrayal of the vengeful, grief-stricken Clytemnestra in ‘Iphigenia’ once again brought her positive reviews from critics. The epic historical drama film ‘The Message’, wherein she played Hind bint Utbah, has an IMDB rating of 8.1/10.
Amongst her other films in the 1970s were ‘Oasis of Fear’, ‘Roma bene’ (both 1971), ‘The Battle of Sutjeska’ (1973), ‘Bambina’ (1974), ‘Blood Wedding’ (1977) and ‘Bloodline’ (1979). In 1974, she joined the cast of ‘Moses the Lawgiver’, a television miniseries, and played the role of Zipporah.
Irene Papas continued working in both films and television in the 1980s. Her film credits during this decade include ‘The Lion of the Desert’ (1980), ‘L'assistente sociale tutto pepe’ (1981), Il disertore, ‘Eréndira’ (both 1983), ‘The Assisi Underground’ (1985), ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’, ‘High Season’ (both 1987) and ‘Island’ (1989). The biographical historical drama ‘The Lion of the Desert’ has an IMDB rating of 8.2/10 and Rotten Tomato score of 75%. The 80s also saw her working in television movies ‘Les tribulations de Manuel’ (1982) and ‘Le banquet’ (1989) as well as tv series ‘All'ombra della grande quercia’ (1984), ‘A Mala de Cartão’ (1988) and ‘Ocean’ (1989).
During 1990s and the early 2000, she worked in television series like ‘L'ispettore anticrimine’ (1993) and ‘The Odyssey’ (1997) and television movies like ‘Les cavaliers aux yeux verts’, (1990), ‘Un amore rubato’ (1993) and Jacob (1994). On big screen, she was seen in ‘Up, Down and Sideways’ (1992), ‘Lettera da Parigi’ (1993), ‘Party’ (1996), ‘Anxiety’ (1998), ‘Yerma’ (1998), ‘Captain Corelli's Mandolin’, ‘Returning in Autumn’, ‘And the Train Goes to the Sky’ (all 2001) and ‘A Talking Picture’ (2003). The 2004 drama film ‘Ecuba’ was her last film appearance. For the movie, she also became the co-director.
