Rena Vlahopoulou

Rena Vlahopoulou
Native name Ειρήνη Βλαχοπούλου
Born Irene Vlahopoulou
February 20, 1923
Corfu, Greece
Died July 29, 2004(2004-07-29) (aged 81)
Athens, Greece
Occupation Actress, singer
Spouse(s) Costas Vasileiou (1939–1943)
Yiannis Costopoulos (1943–1946)
Yiorgos Lafazanis (1967-2004; her death)

Irene Vlahopoulou (Ειρήνη Βλαχοπούλου; February 20, 1923 – July 29, 2004), known as Rena Vlahopoulou, was a Greek actress and singer. She starred in theatre, musical, and Greek cinema productions, including The Gambler and The Countess of Corfu.[1]

Vlahopoulou was born on the island of Corfu, the fifth of nine children. She first began playing the piano, taught by her father, Giannis Vlahopoulos. When she turned ten, she began singing at a local bakery; she was a talented dancer and actress and a qualified mezzo soprano. Over the course of her fifty-five-year career she appeared in 105 theatrical plays between 1939 and 1994, and twenty-six films between 1951 and 1985.

In 1939, Vlahopoulou and AEK footballer Kostas Vasileiou eloped to Athens and were married. She began singing at the Oasis varieté show in the Zappeion gardens, where Mimis Traiforos presented his new work. In the winter of 1930-40, she sang at the World Theatre of Kostas Makedos on Panepistimiou Street.

In the winter of 1940, the Italian Army bombed Corfu. Two of her relatives were killed. The marriage with Vasileiou ended, and in 1942 she married her second husband, a banker, Giannis Kostopoulos; the couple divorced in 1946. She married her third and final husband, Giorgos Lafazanis, on September 18, 1967. They remained wed until her death in 2004. Vlahopoulou had no children by any of her marriages. She left Finos Film in 1966 and moved to Karagiannis-Karatzopoulos.

From 1972, the Greek cinema went through a period of decline because of the introduction of television, but Vlahopoulou continued to star in films for the next seven years. During the 1980s she suffered from episodes of gastrorrhagia. In 1992-93, she starred in the musical comedy Gia Tin Ellada Re Gamo To (Για την Ελλάδα ρε γαμώ το), after which she retired.

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ Rena Vlahopoulou at the Internet Movie Database
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