“Hellenism is never lost (…) ‘Blood doesn’t make water’ my father used to tell us” the iconic Greek-American actor told Nasos Athanasiou in 1971.
“If you are born Greek, you don’t need to be like anyone else, you are Greek.” This statement was made to the journalist Nasos Athanasiou and on public television in 1971 by the iconic Greek-American actor End of Savalaswhen asked if he has any actor as a role model.
Visiting Athens, the expatriate said “after all, Telis Savalas was born Telis Savalas, and this is how he will die.”
Asked what more prize he would like to win, he said that “the best prize for me is to come to Greece, to be seen and to be told Telis Savalas is ours. That for me is the greatest pleasure.”
“Our father raised us with great pride that we were Greeks, another that we were in a foreign country, in America where I grew up. Let’s not lose the language because we go home lost. We only spoke Greek as children… Let’s not lose religion and this pride that we are Greeks. ‘Blood cannot be mixed with water’ my father used to tell us… And Hellenism is never lost. Not even the love for the country” he emphasized emotionally.
“Cypriots are brothers, Greeks too” he had also declared ahead of his three-day trip to Megalonisos to which he had been invited.
Telis Savalas (Aristotelis Tsavalas) (1922-1994) was a Hollywood actor and became world famous with the television series “Kojack”. He was born in 1922 in New York to Greek parents from Gerakas, Laconia. His Laconian father Nikos Savalas (Tsavalas) owned a restaurant and his mother Christina painted until the end of her life. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1963 for the film “Birdman of Alcatraz”. He became well known apart from Kojak, and from the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service where he played Ernst Stavro Blofeld. He was the godfather of the Greek-American actress, Jennifer Aniston. By the time he finished the first six grades of school, he spoke Greek better than English. His career as an actor began after the age of 35, when Bart Lagaster chose him, for his face, to play with him in the movie “Birdman of Alcatraz”, known in Greece as “The Barypoinitis of Alcatraz”.
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