Michael Cacoyannis - Life

Life

Michalis (or Mikhalis) Kakogiannis was born in 1922 in Limassol, Cyprus as Μιχάλης Κακογιάννης. In 1939, he was sent by his father, Sir Panayotis Loizou Cacoyannis, to London to become a lawyer. However, after producing Greek-language programs for the BBC World Service during World War II, He ended up at the Old Vic school, and enjoyed a brief stage career there under the name Michael Yannis before he began working on films. After having trouble finding a directing job in the British film industry, Cacoyannis moved to Greece, and in 1953 he made his first film, Windfall in Athens.

He was offered the chance to direct Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando in the film Reflections in a Golden Eye, but declined. He had worked on many occasions with the Greek actress Irene Papas and especially Elli Lambeti with whom he was in love. Between 1959 and 1967, he was in a relationship with Yael Dayan, a progressive Israeli politician and author. In 1971, he teamed up once more with Papas for the film The Trojan Women.

Read more about this topic:  Michael Cacoyannis

Famous quotes containing the word life:

    I could lie down like a tired child,
    And weep away the life of care
    Which I have borne and yet must bear,
    Till death like sleep might steal on me,
    Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

    The richest princes and the poorest beggars are to have one great and just judge at the last day who will not distinguish between them according to their ranks when in life but according to the neglected opportunities afforded to each. How much greater then, as the opportunities were greater, must be the condemnation of the one than of the other?
    Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)

    To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)