Theatre Papas began her acting career in Greece in variety and traditional theatre, in plays by
Ibsen,
Shakespeare, and classical
Greek tragedy, before moving into film in 1951. She played in
Iphigenia in Aulis in Broadway's
Circle in the Square Theatre in 1968. She starred in
Medea in 1973 on Broadway. Reviewing the production in the
New York Times, drama critic
Clive Barnes described her as a "very fine, controlled Medea", smouldering with a "carefully dampened passion", constantly fierce. Theatre critic
Walter Kerr also praised the performance. Both saw in her portrayal what Barnes called an "unrelenting determination and unwavering desire for justice". She appeared in
The Bacchae in 1980 at Circle in the Square, She began to attract attention with her role in Frixos Iliadis's 1952 film
Dead City (Greek, "Nekri Politeia"). The film was shown at the
Cannes Film Festival, where Papas was welcomed by the international press, and photographed spending time with the wealthy
Aga Khan. Greek filmmakers thought her a noncommercial actress, and she tried her hand abroad, signing with
Lux Film in Italy, where the publicity for
Dead City was enough to launch her as a film star. She played in Lux's 1954 films
Attila and
Theodora, Slave Empress, which attracted Hollywood's attention. in his
Iphigenia (1977). Papas made her name playing powerful women in films of
Greek tragedy, such as
Clytemnestra in
Euripides's play
Iphigenia in Aulis.
Hollywood Papas debuted in American film with a bit part in the B-movie
The Man from Cairo (1953); her next American film was a much larger role as Jocasta Constantine, with
James Cagney, in the Western
Tribute to a Bad Man (1956). In
The Guns of Navarone, she stars as a resistance fighter involved in the action, an addition to
Alistair Maclean's novel, providing a love interest and a strong female character. Gerasimus Katsan comments that she plays a "hard as nails" partisan in
The Guns of Navarone, "capable, unafraid, stoic, patriotic, and heroic"; when the men hesitate, she kills the traitorous Anna; but although she interacts romantically with Andreas (Anthony Quinn), she remains "cool and rational", revealing little of her sensual persona; she is as tough as the men, like the stereotype of a Greek village woman, but she is contrasted with them in the film. Katsan said that she was most often remembered as the "sensual widow" in
Zorba. The scholar of film Jefferson Hunter wrote that Papas helped lift
Zorba from being merely an "exuberant" film with the stark passion of her subplot role. This success did not earn her an easy life; she stated that she did not work for 2 years after
Electra, despite the prizes and acclamation; and again, she was out of work for 18 months after
Zorba. It turned out to be her most popular film, but she said she earned only $10,000 from it. She played an admired
Catherine of Aragon in
Anne of the Thousand Days, opposite
Richard Burton and
Geneviève Bujold in 1969. In 1976, she starred in
The Message about the origin of Islam, a film which
Mark Cousins stated was "perhaps seen by as many people as...any film in cinema history." In 1982, she appeared in
Lion of the Desert. One of her last film appearances was in ''
Captain Corelli's Mandolin'' in 2001, where in Katsan's view she was underused reprising her strong peasant woman from
The Guns of Navarone and the widow from
Zorba. In the view of the film critic Philip Kemp, She stood out in
Costa-Gavras's 1968 political film
Z, based on a real-life assassination, and in Ruy Guerra's 1983
Eréndira, with a screenplay by the novelist
Gabriel García Márquez. Ordinary actors, he suggested, had trouble sharing the screen with Papas. All the same, her presence in many well-known movies, wrote Ebert, inspired "something of a cult". That made her Helen in
The Trojan Women, pacing up and down like a caged panther "with just the searching eyes darting through the bars", a "marvelous surprise", as Hollywood saw that in fact she was also an accomplished actor. The scholar of Greek, Gerasimus Katsan, called her the most recognizable and best-known Greek film star, with "range, power, and subtlety", stating that her work made her a kind of national hero. She acted strong women with "beauty and sensuality, but also fierce independence and spirit". Kourelou wrote that although Papas had appeared in the films of both European and American "
auteurs", she was best known as a
tragedienne, citing the film-maker
Manoel de Oliveira's remark that "this great tragedienne is the grand and beautiful image that embodies the deepest essence of the female soul. She is the image of Greece of all time ..., the mother of western civilisation". In Kourelou's view, Papas's tragic persona "offers an image of sublimated beauty with a transcendental quality"; Asked about her acting for film and stage, and in classical and modern films, Papas stated that the acting techniques and method of expressing oneself are the same. One might, she said, need to use a louder voice on a classical stage, but "you always use the same soul". Papas knew
Mikis Theodorakis from working with him on
Zorba the Greek In 1972, she appeared on the album
666 by the Greek rock group
Aphrodite's Child on the track "∞" (
infinity). She chants "I was, I am, I am to come" repeatedly and wildly over a percussive backing, worrying the label,
Mercury, who hesitated over releasing the album, causing controversy with her "graphic orgasm". In 1979,
Polydor released her album of eight
Greek folk songs entitled
Odes, with electronic music performed (and partly composed) by
Vangelis. The lyrics were co-written by
Arianna Stassinopoulos. They collaborated again in 1986 for
Rapsodies, an electronic rendition of seven
Byzantine liturgy hymns, also on Polydor; Jonny Trunk wrote that there was "no doubting the power, fire and earthy delights of Papas' voice". == Politics ==