It was the summer of 1960 when movie legend Alain Delon flirted with famous Greek actress Tzeni Karezi after a play at the ancient Epidaurus Theater in Greece.
The French icon, who passed away on Sunday at age 88, had visited Greece at the time, accompanied by his lover Romy Schneider and awarded Italian director Luchino Visconti.
During his stay in Greece, the great actor met Tzeni Karezi in Epidaurus. This sparked more than mere rumors of an instant flirtation between the two.
At the time, renowned Greek journalist and film director Nico Mastorakis took photographs of Delon and Karezi at the dining hall of the ship sailing to Piraeus Port after the French star’s stay in Epidaurus. Mastorakis wrote a story about Delon’s stay in Greece in Embros newspaper:
“The scene of the crime was the ancient theater of Epidaurus, where Alain Delon, accompanied by Romy Schneider and director Lucino Visconti, attended the performance of the ancient Greek tragedy ‘Ekavi’ with Katina Paxinou in the leading role. Sitting in the seats of the theater, Jenny Karezi and Lykourgos Kallergis were also watching the show as spectators.
At some point the two Greek actors headed to the side of their European colleagues, exchanged greetings and sat next to them. According to the report, throughout the performance Delon would glance in Karezi’s direction, [and she…] would return the favor with a polite smile, something that infuriated Schneider. Later, when a journalist asked Delon if he likes Tzeni Karezi, the French star eplied: She is one of the women I could fall in love in an instant. She has amazing eyes!”
Alain Delon and his love for women
In 2002, in an exclusive interview with Nikos Hatzinikolaou, host of the ANT1 TV show Enopios Enopio, the French actor talked about his life, career, and friendship he had developed with certain Greek actors.
Occasionally, during the interview, Delon sounded as if he had just confessed certain things, possibly for the first time ever. “It’s not tiring to carry the title of the ‘charmer.’ It is a life and career choice of 40 years. I chose the film career and my goal was to be successful. But good looks are secondary. It’s the heart and the mind that matter,” the French actor said 22 years ago.
“Women dominated a big part of my life, [and] they always motivated me. I came into the profession out of love for a woman who told me I was made for it,” he confessed. “I told her that I never went to acting school, [and] that there were no actors in my family, but I would try it to please her and I never stopped since then.”
“I succeeded in this job because I discovered it by chance,” the French icon told Hatzinikolaou. “I had never dreamed of it, [and] I had never imagined it. I didn’t go to filming, [but] filming came to me. Usually a handsome man is considered a talentless man. I had to prove that I was both handsome and talented in order to establish myself and…become an actor progressively.”
Delon also spoke about the Greek actresses he befriended during his career: “I was very good friends with Katina Paxinou, [and] Irene Papas is a personal friend of mine, [while] Melina Mercouri was my friend, as was (her husband) Jules Dassin.”
