Eleni Halkousi

Actor

Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]

January 1, 1901

Biography

Eleni Chalkousi (Greek: Ελένη Χαλκούση, Istanbul, 1901 - Athens, 28 March 1993) was a great Greek actress, chronicler and translator of plays. She was originally from Chios. She graduated from the Zappeion Girls' School (1922) and attended aesthetic and literature courses at the School of Oriental Languages of the Sorbonne, in Paris, and at the Conservatoire (Conservatory) as well as theater courses at the drama school of actor Charles Le Barzy. She appeared for the first time on the theatrical stage at the Art Theater of Spyros Melas in 1925. A year later in 1926 she directed her own troupe, Neoi, at the Kyvelis Theater. From then until 1935, she toured almost all of Greece as a troupe leader, usually staging avant-garde plays. From 1936 to 1945, she collaborated with Marika Kotopouli's troupe as an actress, assistant director and professor at the Marika Kotopouli Drama School. She was one of the best students of Kyveli and Marika Kotopouli. Previously, however, she is said to have collaborated with the Popular Stage of Karolos Koun. In 1945, she was hired at the National Theater, where she excelled until the end of her career, participating in numerous theatrical performances with great success. However, she was also successful in cinema with her participation from 1942 to 1969, where she moved to television, where her last artistic presence was in the television series The Merchants of Nations in 1973. Her last theatrical appearance was in 1985, in Thesmophoriazuesa, with the Modern Theater of G. Messalas. Eleni Chalkousi was an excellent translator of plays, an artistic chronicler in many newspapers and magazines, as well as with numerous television presentations, a writer, the well-known Savoir Vivre that she published, and a trade unionist in her field. Finally, for many years she was a member of the teaching staff of the Drama School of the National Theater Foundation. Eleni Chalkousi spoke French and Turkish. She was a permanent resident of Athens. (Source: Wikipedia)