Mary Chronopoulou, the beloved protagonist of the old Greek cinema, died at the age of 90.

The actress has been hospitalized for the last few days intubated, in critical condition, in Evangelismos, after falling on the steps of her house.

In August 1999 she suffered a serious car accident, which has confined her to a wheelchair and forced her to stay out of the public eye until a few months ago, when she re-emerged.

“Best Actress”

In the 1960s and 1970s she was distinguished as one of the most popular and important Greek actresses, who became a big star in the golden age of cinema.

In fact, in the year 1967-68, she was the best actress of the cinema and won the prize of the critics association.

The great actress was loved by the public through iconic roles that will forever remain in the collective consciousness of all of us. Her acting talent ranged from comedy, musical, drama to old and new cinema while working with the biggest names in producers, directors and actors.

Among her memorable performances were her roles in Finos Film’s comedies “A lady with bouzoukis” as Elena Apergi and “Mermaids and Magicians” as Flora.

“I loved the cinema from the first moment and he loved me in turn, I can’t sayhe said on June 16, 2021, receiving the Overall Offer Award at the IRIS Awards Ceremony from the Hellenic Film Academy.

The “dramatic” Mary Chronopoulou

Her svelte aristocratic figure did not go unnoticed, while the roles she played in both musicals and social films had a great appeal.

In addition to Dalianidis’ musicals, Mary Chronopoulou played in great dramatic films such as “The Red Lights” (1963) by V. Georgiadis (nominated for the Oscar for foreign language film at the 36th award ceremony in 1964, produced by Damaskinou-Michailidis).

Her performances in the films also stood out “Without ID“, (1963, Finos Film), “Tthe soil was dyed red” directed by Vassilis Georgiadis and written by Nikos Foskolos, (nominated for the foreign language film Oscar at the 38th award ceremony in 1966), “Too late for tears” by Yiannis Dalianidis (1968, Finos Film), “When the city dies” written by Nikos Foskolos and directed by Yiannis Dalianidis (1969, Finos Film), “The rogues” by Dinos Katsouridis (1965, Savas Film), “Zero hour society” by Dinos Dimopoulos (1966, Finos Film), “The Avenue of Hate” (1968, Finos Film) and “Zero visibility» by Nikos Foskolos (1970, Finos Film).

At her theatrical career, collaborated with all the major troupes of Athens and performed with the same interpretative ability in all types of theater. In 1972 she formed her own troupe with which she staged the plays: “What time will you turn, Penelope” by Somerset Mom and “A hot girl” by Iakovos Campanelis.

She has important interpretations to her credit and in new Greek cinemaas in the excellent films of Theodoros Angelopoulos “The hunters” and “Trip to Kythira“, while he won first female role award at the Thessaloniki Festival with the movie “The Swallow’s Children” by Kostas Vrettakos, in 1987.

The star with the lonely personal life

Mary Chronopoulou lived alone in the last decades.

She was engaged for 3 years to the actor Andreas Barkoulis while in 1975 she married the former mayor of Spatas and former MP Dimos Botsaris and they divorced after a while.

Since then she never remarried and never had children – but she was the “spiritual mother”, the godmother of Alkis Kourkoulos, the son of Nikos Kourkoulos.