Nikos Xanthopoulos, a renowned actor of Greek classical cinema, passed away on Sunday at the age of 89 due to chronic heart disease, AMNA has reported.
Xanthopoulos has been hospitalised and remained in intensive care at a hospital in Athens, Greece for over a month before his death.
Greece’s Culture Minister, Lina Mendoni, paid tribute to Xanthopoulos in a statement and said he was a “familiar face at a time when Greece was changing at a rapid and dramatic rate.”
“Nikos Xanthopoulos was a deeply cultivated artist, a sensitive citizen towards the social messages of the times, a noble man, who expressed popular sentiment, the pain of refugees and internal migration in an authentic way,” Mendoni added.
The life of Xanthopoulos:
Born in Athens in 1934, Xanthopoulos began his career as a stage actor before transitioning to film.
Throughout his career, which lasted from 1958 to 1971, Xanthopoulos starred in 48 films and became known as a star of Greek melodrama, often portraying everyday people from lower working classes.
Xanthopoulos worked closely with director-producer Apostolos Tegopoulos and the film company KLAK Film, which helped make him a star in Greece during the dictatorship of the Junta.
His nickname was “to paidi tou laou” (the child of the people).
Xanthopoulos also recorded nine albums and sang and played the bouzouki.
He was married twice and had four children. His autobiography was published in 2005.
Source: AMNA.gr.
