Stathis Giallelis

Last updated • 9 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Stathis Giallelis
Born (1941-01-21) January 21, 1941 (age 83)
Years active1963–1983

Stathis Giallelis (Greek : Στάθης Γιαλελής; born January 21, 1941) is a retired Greek actor. He won brief international renown in the early 1960s as the star of Elia Kazan's Academy Award-nominated epic America America , a role which brought him the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor, as well as a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.

Contents

America America

Giallelis' entire prominence revolves around his central role in America America . He appears in nearly every scene of the 174-minute film and gives what some critics described at the time as a "towering performance". He has not, however, faced a camera since 1980 and his biographical details remain sketchy. The date of his birth is generally accepted as correct, although two sources indicate 1939 as the year. All listings agree that he was born in Greece, but none specify the location. The medium-height, slightly built Giallelis was twenty-one years old in mid-1962, upon Elia Kazan's arrival in Greece looking for someone who could capture his uncle's life in 1890s Anatolia and the struggle to achieve his determined dream of immigrating to the United States. Kazan wanted an unknown actor in whom the audience would see the character rather than the familiar face. In his autobiography, Elia Kazan: A Life, the director describes the details of his search for "a ferret, not a lion", someone who, like his uncle, did not always behave honorably, but had "my boy's single redeeming quality, devotion to his father and family".

Kazan first tried to find his leading actor in England and, subsequently, in France, where a likely candidate was found, tested and rejected as "too handsome" and "lacking desperation". Even the Actors Studio proved deficient in providing the ideal aspirant. Finally, as he described it, "I did the obvious, went to Athens, and in the office a film director found an apprentice sweeping the floor so he could be near production work". This was the office of Greek producer/director Daniel Bourla. Unfortunately, Giallelis was severely limited in both acting experience and knowledge of English. The only son in a family with four daughters, he nevertheless impressed Kazan with his sincerity and deeply felt reminiscences of his Communist father's death in the aftermath of the Communist centrist/rightist struggle in the Greek Civil War. Kazan later compared Giallelis' performance to that of the protagonist in Vittorio De Sica's 1949 neorealist classic The Bicycle Thief .

Short-lived fame

Giallelis worked on his English for nearly 18 months while preparing for and filming his role. He received positive critical notices. The New York Times' Bosley Crowther, in his December 16, 1963 review of the film, noted that "Greek lad Stathis Giallelis (pronounced STAH-this-Ya-lah-LEASE) is incredibly good as the determined hero, putting fire and spirit into the role". Other critics called his performance "mesmerizing", "heartbreaking" and "unforgettable".

America America earned three Oscar nominations for Elia Kazan (Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay), but its only win on Oscar night, April 13, 1964, was for Gene Callahan's black-and-white Art Direction. Eleven additional nominations came from other awards, including Golden Globes, which, a month earlier, March 11, named Elia Kazan "Best Director" and Giallelis "Most Promising Male Newcomer/New Star of the Year", an award he shared with two of the remaining five nominees Albert Finney and Robert Walker, Jr. He was also nominated for "Best Actor in a Drama", but lost to Sidney Poitier in his Oscar-winning Lilies of the Field role.

Later roles in the 1960s

As America America received wide distribution in Europe and elsewhere in 1964–65, Giallelis basked in the spotlight. In the months between the end of production and its December release, he completed a cameo role in Nikos Koundouros' 1963 Greek art film Mikres Afrodites (Young Aphrodites). Returning to Hollywood, the young actor seemed to be on the verge of a long and successful film career. Ultimately, however, in the 16-year period between 1964 and 1980, he appeared in front of the camera only seven more times in widely spaced film projects, only three of which ( Cast a Giant Shadow , Blue and The Children of Sanchez ) were American productions.

Giallelis' first post-America America film offer came shortly after the epic went into wide release during Christmas week of 1963. Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, Argentina's internationally best known filmmaker, whose hypocrisy- and corruption-themed films regularly received acclaim at European film festivals, invited him to star in his new project, El Ojo de la Cerradura (The Eavesdropper). His co-star, and the only other non-Spanish speaker in the cast would be intense twenty-one-year-old actress Janet Margolin who, two years earlier, received critical praise for her highly dramatic co-starring role (with Keir Dullea) in Frank Perry's David and Lisa . Filmed in Buenos Aires, El Ojo de la Cerradura garnered encouraging notices at a number of film festivals and won the Silver Condor Best Film Award from the Argentine Film Critics Association. Two years later it received a belated release in U.S. art houses, including a September 1966 New York premiere. Despite good notices, it soon ended its run and has remained elusive. Giallelis' second 1966 U.S. release, Cast a Giant Shadow, is the only title in his brief filmography structured as a major studio production. The all-star epic about a Jewish-American army officer's key leadership role in winning the battles which led to the 1948 establishment of Israel, found him fifth-billed after Kirk Douglas (as the central figure, Colonel Mickey Marcus), Senta Berger, Angie Dickinson and James Donald. His role, as a dedicated Israeli fighter for independence, spotted him in various brief moments throughout the film, but did not leave a strong impression. Despite its Hollywood pedigree, Cast a Giant Shadow was shot by director Melville Shavelson entirely on outdoor locations in Israel and Italy as well as studio interiors at Rome's Cinecittà studios.

Two more years would pass before Giallelis was seen in another film. Blue was a well-budgeted independent western directed on picturesque Utah locations by Silvio Narizzano. Billed fourth after Terence Stamp (as "Azul" ["Blue" in Spanish]), Joanna Pettet and Karl Malden, Giallelis, as the son of Mexican bandit Ricardo Montalbán had little to show for his dramatic efforts and, with Montalban's "Special guest" billing factored in, he actually was, again, in fifth place. Released by Paramount on May 10, 1968, Blue was perceived by a number of critics as an anti-war allegory, specifically focusing on Vietnam. Saddled with a mostly negative response from the critics, the film was quickly out of theaters.

Last years of activity as an actor

Some sources credit Giallelis with a role in the Yugoslav-produced war film Rekvijem (Requiem), but his participation remains unconfirmed. The World War II heroics on display gave top billing to American Ty Hardin who, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, appeared in a number of European-made action films and Spaghetti Westerns. Rekvijem premiered in Yugoslavia on July 15, 1970 and, although it never had a U.S. release, it was later seen on television in a cut and dubbed version entitled Last Rampage.

In 1974, Jules Dassin and his wife Melina Mercouri used the donated services of many top entertainment personalities to produce The Rehearsal , an angry docudrama which reconstructed the events leading to the killing of some forty students in Athens, as they protested against the heavy-handed rule of the Greek Junta. As a Greek living abroad, Giallelis was invited to participate along with Olympia Dukakis, Mikis Theodorakis and other celebrities of varying nationalities, such as Laurence Olivier and Maximilian Schell. Socially active writers, including Lillian Hellman and former Elia Kazan compatriot Arthur Miller also took rare acting turns in the production. Filmed in a makeshift New York studio, the film was finished only days before the Junta's fall in July, and was thus set aside without public showings. Decades later, it received a brief New York premiere on October 17, 2001. Now able to return to his homeland, Giallelis appeared in esteemed Greek director Pantelis Voulgaris' Nineteen Eighty-Four -like allegory Happy Day , playing one of the leads in the story about imprisonment and repression in an unspecified European-style society. Having briefly been a Hollywood star in the previous decade, he was still seen as a celebrity in his homeland, but the film, despite receiving top prizes at Greek film festivals in 1976 and a showing in Canada at the 1977 Toronto Festival of Festivals, had little impact on his career.

After a passage of another two years, Giallelis appeared in his last-to-date American film, The Children of Sanchez. Hall Bartlett's adaptation of the Oscar Lewis novel was filmed on location in Mexico and starred native-born Anthony Quinn as his country's putative everyman, Jesus Sanchez. Giallelis received yet another fifth billing, following two veteran Mexican actresses, Dolores del Río and Katy Jurado, as well as Venezuelan Lupita Ferrer who, at the time, was married to Hall Bartlett. Gialellis's role as Roberto was relatively small and underwritten, but he did receive a couple of closeups, which showed premature aging on the 37-year-old actor's once-youthful face. Upon its Los Angeles premiere on November 22, 1978, the film received mixed to poor reviews, with the primary attention going to Chuck Mangione's lively score.

Two additional years elapsed before Giallelis made one more passage in front of the cameras. In writer-director Giuseppe Ferrara's 1980 RAI TV Italian miniseries, Panagulis vive (Panagoulis Lives), which examined the life and death of Greece's renowned martyred poet-politician/democracy activist Alexandros Panagoulis (19391976), the title role went to the actor whose ethnicity, still-remaining international fame, and age (a year-and-a-half younger than Panagoulis) made him a natural candidate for the part. Heading a large cast, he received generally favorable notices in various European media outlets. The 220-minute production, however, was never made available to American audiences.

Career evaluation

In his autobiography, Elia Kazan faults Giallelis for having been pampered by his mother and four sisters and never developing enough ambition to become a viable screen personality. He writes that the young actor should have devoted more time to losing his accent so he would not be cast exclusively in ethnic roles and his speech pattern could be better understood by American audiences. However, Kazan's biographer, film critic and historian Richard Schickel disagrees, stating that Giallelis' speaking mannerisms in America America are clear and distinct. Whatever the reasons for the actor's aborted film career, as one of a handful of screen performers known for a single acclaimed role (an ultimate example would be Maria Falconetti), his tour de force in America America provides him with a secure place in film history.

Later life

After his years as an award-winning actor, Giallelis exited the life of Hollywood glam and went to work at the United Nations International School in Manhattan, New York, working as a child supervisor and mentor. He retired in the summer of 2008.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Lemmon</span> American actor (1925–2001)

John Uhler Lemmon III was an American actor. Considered proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures. He received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. He received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1988, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1991, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1996. The Guardian labeled him as "the most successful tragi-comedian of his age."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elia Kazan</span> American film and theatre director (1909–2003)

Elias Kazantzoglou, known as Elia Kazan, was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by The New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clint Eastwood</span> American actor and director (born 1930)

Clinton Eastwood Jr. is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rod Steiger</span> American actor (1925–2002)

Rodney Stephen Steiger was an American actor, noted for his portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. Ranked as "one of Hollywood's most charismatic and dynamic stars", he is closely associated with the art of method acting, embodying the characters he played, which at times led to clashes with directors and co-stars. He starred as Marlon Brando's mobster brother Charley in On the Waterfront (1954), the title character Sol Nazerman in The Pawnbroker (1964) which won him the Silver Bear for Best Actor, and as police chief Bill Gillespie opposite Sidney Poitier in the film In the Heat of the Night (1967) which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren Beatty</span> American actor and filmmaker (born 1937)

Henry Warren Beatty is an American actor and filmmaker. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has received an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received the Irving G. Thalberg Award in 1999, the BAFTA Fellowship in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2007, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Matthau</span> American actor (1920–2000)

Walter Matthau was an American screen and stage actor, known for his "hangdog face" and for playing world-weary characters. He starred in 10 films alongside his real-life friend Jack Lemmon, including The Odd Couple (1968) and Grumpy Old Men (1993). The New York Times called this "one of Hollywood's most successful pairings". Among other accolades, he was an Academy Award, a two-time BAFTA Award, and two-time Tony Award winner.

<i>America America</i> 1963 American dramatic film by Elia Kazan

America America is a 1963 American drama film directed, produced and written by Elia Kazan. It was inspired by the struggle of his uncle, Avraam Elia Kazantzoglou, to work his way to America, a land of dreams and opportunity. Kazan adapted the screenplay from his own 1962 book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Malden</span> American actor (1912–2009)

Karl Malden was an American stage, movie and television actor who first achieved acclaim in the original Broadway productions of Arthur Miller's All My Sons and Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire in 1946 and 1947. Recreating the role of Mitch in the 1951 film of Streetcar, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Ritt</span> American film and theatre director (1914–1990)

Martin Ritt was an American director, producer, and actor, active in film, theatre and television. He was known mainly as an auteur of socially-conscious dramas and literary adaptations, described by Stanley Kauffmann as "one of the most underrated American directors, superbly competent and quietly imaginative."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anatole Litvak</span> Soviet film director

Anatoly Mikhailovich LitvakOBE ; 10 May 1902 – 15 December 1974), better known as Anatole Litvak, was a Ukrainian-born of Ashkenazi Jewish origin American filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in various countries and languages. He began his theatrical training at age 13 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire.

<i>A Streetcar Named Desire</i> (1951 film) 1951 film by Elia Kazan

A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1951 American Southern Gothic drama film adapted from Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. It is directed by Elia Kazan, and stars Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden. The film tells the story of a Mississippi Southern belle, Blanche DuBois (Leigh), who, after encountering a series of personal losses, seeks refuge with her sister (Hunter) and brother-in-law (Brando) in a dilapidated New Orleans apartment building. The original Broadway production and cast was converted to film, albeit with several changes and sanitizations related to censorship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Schickel</span> American film scholar

Richard Warren Schickel was an American film historian, journalist, author, documentarian, and film and literary critic. He was a film critic for Time from 1965–2010, and also wrote for Life and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. His last writings about film were for Truthdig.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Wolff (actor)</span> American actor (1928–1971)

Walter Frank Hermann Wolff was an American actor whose film career began with roles in five 1958–61 Roger Corman productions and ended a decade later in Rome, after many appearances in European-made films, most of which were lensed in Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Loden</span> American actress and film and stage director (1932–1980)

Barbara Ann Loden was an American actress and director of film and theater. Richard Brody of The New Yorker described Loden as the "female counterpart to John Cassavetes".

Paul Osborn was an American playwright and screenwriter. Osborn's original plays are The Vinegar Tree, Oliver Oliver, and Morning's at Seven and among his several successful adaptations, On Borrowed Time has proved particularly popular. He wrote the screenplays for East of Eden (1955) and South Pacific (1958), among other films.

Jonathan Kaplan is an American film producer and director. His film The Accused (1988) earned actress Jodie Foster the Oscar for Best Actress and was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival. His film Love Field (1992) earned actress Michelle Pfeiffer an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival. Kaplan received five Emmy nominations for his roles directing and producing the television series ER.

The Eavesdropper, also known as El ojo de la cerradura, is a 1966 film directed by Argentine filmmaker Leopoldo Torre Nilsson. It was financed with the U.S. company Columbia Pictures.

Gene Callahan was an American art director as well as set and production designer who contributed to over fifty films and more than a thousand TV episodes. He received nominations for the British Academy Film Award and four Oscars, including two wins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoe Kazan</span> American actress (born 1983)

Zoe Swicord Kazan is an American actress and writer. She made her acting debut in the film Swordswallowers and Thin Men (2003) and later acted in films such as The Savages (2007), Revolutionary Road (2008), and It's Complicated (2009). She starred in Happythankyoumoreplease (2010), Meek's Cutoff (2010), Ruby Sparks (2012), What If (2013), The Big Sick (2017), The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), and She Said (2022). She also wrote Ruby Sparks and co-wrote Wildlife (2018) with her partner Paul Dano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert De Niro</span> American actor (born 1943)

Robert Anthony De Niro is an American actor and film producer. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016.

References