Rafail Denogias(1911-1996)

Rafail Denogias was a Greek actor and tenor. He obtained his professional performing license at the age of twenty-eight and subsequently worked with a musical theater company in Italy, later forming his own troupe. He formed a celebrated duo with his wife, Lela Passali, an actress and soprano, with whom he presented musical comedies in Athens and Patras during the early 1960s. In the theater, he collaborated with Katerina Andreadi and Mimis Kokkinis and staged operettas by Theofrastos Sakellaridis, including 'Glykia Nana' and 'Kori tis amartias'. Denogias made his film debut in 1932 in Greek Rhapsody (1932), going on to appear primarily in supporting roles in numerous films, among them I hartopaihtra (1964). His sole television appearance came in 1976, when he acted in the ERT comedy series Mia Athinaia stin Athina (1976). From 1969 until his death, he shared a home with fellow actor Hronis Exarhakos. Denogias passed away in Athens in December 1996 at the age of eighty-five during open-heart surgery. His wife, Lela Passali, had preceded him in death in 1983 after a long illness.