Notis Pitsilos(1935-2008)

Notis Pitsilos was a Greek actor whose unconventional career bridged underground cinema, popular culture, and international arthouse film. He began his artistic path in the 1950s as a shadow theater figure maker, earning a scholarship to study at the Academy of Arts in Rome, where he was influenced by Italian neorealism. Returning to Greece in the early 1960s, he worked behind the scenes in film production before appearing as an actor. From the 1970s onward, he became a recognizable presence in Greek softcore and cult cinema of the 1980s, while also appearing in television series and advertising. In 1975, he had a supporting role in the Algerian film Chronicle of the Years of Fire (1975), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He remained an independent, distinctive figure of the Athenian artistic underground until his death in 2008.