Legendary Cypriot actor Moustakas dies

RENOWNED Cypriot actor Soteris Moustakas died in the early hours of yesterday aged 67 after falling ill during the rehearsal a production at a theatre in Athens.

He is survived his actress wife Maria Bonelou and one daughter.

Although a popular television and film actor working mostly in comedies, Moustakas is also known in Greece for his numerous performances in plays, with a career spanning more than 40 years.

Paying tribute to his death yesterday, Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said Moustakas was “one of the most significant comic actors who has emerged from Greece and Cyprus”.

Born in 1940 in Limassol, Moustakas was the youngest of eight brothers. Various pregnancy complications led doctors to believe his chances of survival were slim, but he was born a healthy baby.

For this reason, his mother named him Sotiris, meaning “saviour”.

During his mid-teens, Moustakas took part in the EOKA uprising, with duties including the delivering of orders to various EOKA groups from their leader George Grivas.

He was arrested by the British and jailed for seven months for his connection to the group.

After being released from prison, he worked at a beer and wine factory in Limassol before moving to Greece to pursue his career as an actor while, at the same time, working as a waiter to support himself.

It was during his time at the National Theatre of Greece that he met his wife and the two went on to marry in 1974.

Moustakas’ film debut came in 1964 in the Oscar-winning movie Zorba the Greek starring Anthony Quinn, in which he played Mimithos, the village idiot.

It was the start of a successful partnership with Greek cinema and Moustakas embarked on a long career in the world of Greek film, television and theatre.

Moustakas last film role was in Yiannis Smaragdes’ El Greco – a movie about the life and art of the Cretan painter, Dominikos Theotokopoulos.

The film, which is set for release October 18, 2007, is said to be one of the most expensive Greek films ever made.
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The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.