Eleni Zafeiriou

Also Known As

Ελένη Ζαφειρίου, Ελενη Ζαφειριου, Νίτσα Ζαφειρίου

Biography

Eleni Zafeiriou (Greek: Ελένη Ζαφειρίου, 1916 – 2 September 2004) was a Greek film actress. She appeared in 108 films between 1951 and 1996. She was born in Larissa, Greece, and died in Athens. She was a graduate of the Drama School of the National Theatre. She made his stage debut in 1936 in the play Before Sunset by Gerhard Hauptmann, which was staged at the National Theatre. She played dozens of roles, mainly in the classical repertoire. The most important of these were the roles of Queen Margaret in Richard III, the goddess Athena in Iphigenia, Atossa in The Persians, Queen Gertrude in Hamlet, Goneril in King Lear, the nurse in Medea, Antigone in Oedipus at Colonus, Tecmissa in Ajax, Sarah in The Sacrifice of Abraham, Roncalina in The King, etc. She had excelled in cinema in exceptional roles, with wonderful acting skills, embodying the simplicity of women of the popular classes, such as Bitter Bread, Little City, The Lake of Desire, etc. In most of the films she participated in, she played the mother of the protagonists. On television, the role of Kambouritsa remained characteristic, which she performed in the series Christ is Crucified Again in the 1970s. In addition, she participated in the dubbing of some cartoons. Specifically, she gave her voice to the witch from the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Lady Klossa from the film Robin Hood. In 1991, Eleni Zafeiriou's book entitled What Should I Remember First, Mother, was published by Odos Panos Publications. She died at the People's Hospital of Athens after a battle with successive strokes and was buried at the Chalandri Cemetery in a close family circle.