100 years ago, on this day in 1920, Greece's much loved Melina Mercouri was born.  Melina Mercouri is one of the great women figures of Greece in the 20th Century.  A vibrant personality, she played a leading role in the struggle against the Colonel’s Junta in 1967-1974, a popular singer and a great theatre and film actress of international fame.  The parts she has portrayed have made cinema history.  She was also a politician who left her mark on Greek culture.  Melina was born in Athens on 18th October 1920.  She came from a family of politicians and was the granddaughter of Spyros Mercouris, one of the most successful and popular Mayors of Athens, for more than 30 years.  Her first big success was in the theatre, before appearing in Paris in boulevard plays, returning to Greece in 1955.

Melina started her cinema career in the film Stella which received special praise at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956.  In Cannes, she met the American filmmaker Jules Dassin with whome she would share her life and career.  Soon after she starred in many of Dassin's movies like He who must die, The Law, Never on a Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi and 10:30pm summer.  In 1960, Melina received the best actress prize in Cannes for Never on a Sunday, in which the film won five Oscar nominations.  In total, Melina starred in about 60 plays and 19 movies by renowned international directors.  Melina Mercouri was able to combine the magic of the performing arts with the realism of politics.  She was very actively involved in many aspects of social and political life, first during the Colonel's Junta dictatorship where she became one of the most visible and severe critics of the military regime and later as a Member of Parliament before becoming the Greek Minister of Culture from 1981-1989 and again from 1993 until her death.

Melina Mercouri died on 6th March 1994 at New York’s Memorial Hospital and her funeral was held with Prime Minister’s honours.

Melina Mercouri will probably be best remembered for singing the song Never on a Sunday, starting the campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum, holding the international competition for the design of the new Acropolis Museum, but mostly the love she had for the Greek people that was returned to her, and that her memory is revered and cherished by all.