RENA VLAHOPOULOU

Irene "Rena" Vlahopoulou (Greek: Ειρήνη (Ρένα) Βλαχοπούλου; 28 July 1923 – 29 July 2004) was a Greek actress and singer. She starred in theatre, musical and Greek cinema productions, including The Gambler and The Countess of Corfu. Vlahopoulou was born on 28 July 1923 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 Athens footballer, Kostas Vasiliou 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. The marriage with Vasiliou ended. In 1942 she married her second husband, a banker, Giannis Kostopoulos; the couple divorced in 1946. She married her third and final husband, entrepreneur Giorgos Lafazanis, on 18 September 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, she continued to star in films for the next seven years. 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. Vlahopoulou died at 7 pm on 29 July 2004, after being hospitalized in the intensive care unit of the Athens Medical Center, aged 81. On 30 July 2004, her body was exposed in a popular pilgrimage in the chapel of Saint Lazarus in the First Cemetery of Athens. She was buried at a public expense on 31 July 2004, accompanied by the band of the Philharmonic Society "Mantzaros" that came from Corfu, in the presence of many of her colleagues and ordinary people. On the day of her funeral all shops in Corfu remained closed, as a sign of mourning. Her hometown honored her by naming the old theatre "Mon Repo", to the "Rena Vlahopoulou" theatre.