Spiros Focas is dead at 86 years old. The Greek actor was known and loved in Italy for having starred in numerous films by local directors, but his career had also landed overseas and he had acted in foreign films and some Hollywood films. It was the visionary Luchino Visconti who appreciated his acting skills and launched him onto the Italian and international scene, who included him in the cast of Rocco and his brothers. In the film he played his older brother, Vincenzo Parondi, who leaves everything, such as his long-awaited engagement with Ginetta, to help his loved ones.
Goodbye to Spiros Focas, who died at 86: who he was
Spiros Focas, nome d’arte di Spyros Androutsopoulos, born in Patrasso, on August 17, 1937. He graduated from the Kostis Michailidis acting school. The death also occurred in Greece, in Eleusis. His debut in the world of cinema came in 1959 and he subsequently appeared in an impressive number of films: over two hundred in a twenty-year career. There Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni paid tribute to Focás, stating that he was one of the “best known and loved” actors in the country and also remembered his “important theatrical career, especially on the big foreign stages”. Very little is known about his private life other than that he married four times without having children.
In his debut film he participated as an actor in the Greek film Bloody sunset (Matoméno iliovasiléma), presented to Cannes Film Festivalwhich it will represent the starting point of his international career. The first appearance in Italy, again in 1959, did not take place under the direction of Visconti, but rather under the vigilant direction of Franco Rossi, who directed his interpretation of Bruno in the film Death of a friend. It is a film with a strong Pasolini flavour, which sees two “life boys” survive by pilfering and exploiting prostitutes. A momentary example of the cinematographic movement evolving in those years.
Career from “Rocco and His Brothers” to “Rambo”
Then in 1960 it was the turn of Vincenzo’s famous interpretation in Rocco and his brothersunder the directed by Luchino Visconti. The film’s title is a combination of Thomas Mann’s work Joseph and His Brothers and the name of Rocco Scotellaro, a southern poet whom Visconti loved. The five brothers are presented, during the narration, in combination with the five fingers of the hand, of which Rocco represents the middle finger
The 1980s were the peak of his career. In 1985 Spiros Focas appeared in Hollywood blockbusters with The jewel of the Nile directed by Lewis Teague and in 1988 in the film Rambo III directed by Peter MacDonald.
2023-11-11 07:34:00
#Spiros #Focas #Greek #actor #loved #Italy #dead #starred #Rocco #brothers
