Biography

Aliki Vougiouklaki

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Aliki Vougiouklaki was born in 1934 (or 1933, according to some sources), in Maroussi Attikis, Greece. She studied at the Drama School of the Greek National Theater and made her stage debut in a 1953 Athens production of Molière's "Le malade imaginaire". Around the same time she made her movie debut in To pontikaki (1954). The late 1950's was her breakthrough period: she starred in a successful revival of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" (as Eliza Doolittle) and took the leading part in a very popular movie, Maiden's Cheek (1959). She instantly became Greece's most popular star, created her personal stage group (with a repertory including Aristophanes' "Lysistrata", Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth" and Sophocles' "Antigone") and starred in many films, light comedies and melodramas (in many of them she co-starred with Dimitris Papamichael, who was her husband and theater partner during 1965-1974). Her film Ypolohagos Natassa (1970) has been the biggest moneymaker in the history of Greek cinema.
- IMDb mini biography by: Thanassis Agathos<thanaga@hol.gr

Laurence Olivier called her portrayal of Eva Perón in the Rice-Webber musical Evita, in 1981, as "the best Evita I have ever seen.".
When asked which international actress she admired Aliki described English actress Maggie Smith as "a gifted actress and a rare talent".
She went through an audition in London in order to get the rights to play the title part in the Rice-Webber musical Evita even though she was the number one box office star in Greece and had acting experience of twenty-five years.
She was very interested in foreign languages from a young age. She was fluent in English, Italian and French.
Her father died during World War 2, defending his country against the German invasion, and she has two brothers, film director Takis Vougiouklakis, and architect Antonis Vougiouklakis.

"Glory! What is glory really? It's just stress and nothing more. The proof is Garbo, Monroe and many others who just couldn't deal with it. Hayworth had become an alcoholic, Bardot has locked herself in a house. What kind of glory is this anyway?" (1982)
"If I die tomorrow the exact same thing that has happened to Marilyn Monroe in the U.S. will happen to me too: for as long as she was alive and well people looked down upon her and considered her some sort of an inferior "product". The moment she died, scenes from her movies were spliced together and everybody said "look, what an amazing phaenomenon, what a great actress she was." (1976)
"Sometimes I get enormously scared and see everything pitch-black. But then I turn and look at the sun and I shout out loud: I'm with you. C'mon,let's start all over again." (1995)
"Yes, I am very scared of death and loneliness. I am scared of death because I love life too much, because it's impossible for me to accept the concept of the inevitable ending. I am scared of loneliness in the sense of the ultimate isolation." (1994)
The man in my life is me!

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