Irene Papas

Papas was born as Eirini Lelekou (Ειρήνη Λελέκου) on 3 September 1929,{{efn|There has been confusion over the date of birth, with the Enciclopedia Italiana stating in 1994 that Papas was born on 3 September 1926 rather than 3 September 1929. This error was propagated by other sources (for example, Finos Film{{Cite web |title=Ειρήνη Παππά (Irene Pappas) |url=http://finosfilm.com/movies/artistView/112 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616165936/http://finosfilm.com/movies/artistView/112 |archive-date=16 June 2018 |access-date=18 June 2020 |publisher=FinosFilm |quote=Γεννήθηκε: 03 Σεπτεμβρίου 1926 ("Born: 3 September 1926")}}). Papas addressed the confusion directly, noting that she had often been described as three years older than she actually was. At the start of an interview on Greek state television in 2004 she said "I was born on Sept. 3, 1929. All the papers are there in Chiliomodi [her home village]".}}{{cite news |last=Zee |first=Michaela |title=Irene Papas, 'Zorba The Greek' and 'Z' Star, Dies at 93 |url=https://variety.com/2022/film/news/irene-papas-dead-zorba-the-greek-1235372740/ |access-date=16 September 2022 |publisher=Variety |date=14 September 2022}}{{cite news |title=Irene Papas, Greek Actress Who Earned Hollywood Fame, Dies at 93 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/irene-papas-dead-greek-actress-hollywood-fame-1235220338/ |access-date=16 September 2022 |publisher=The Hollywood Reporter |date=14 September 2022}} in the village of Chiliomodi, outside Corinth, Greece. Her mother, Eleni Prevezanou (Ελένη Πρεβεζάνου), was a schoolteacher, and her father, Stavros Lelekos (Σταύρος Λελέκος),{{efn|There are persistent but vague and unsubstantiated claims of an Albanian connection. Papas stated in an interview, without providing evidence, that "my father probably came from Albania. Maybe I am Albanian, or half Albanian. The Peloponnese is full of Albanians."{{Cite web |date=4 December 2016 |title=Irene Papas: Jam Shqiptare, Peloponezi është plot me shqiptarë |url=https://www.thealbanian.co.uk/irene-papas-jam-shqiptare-peloponezi-eshte-plot-shqiptare/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416152801/https://www.thealbanian.co.uk/irene-papas-jam-shqiptare-peloponezi-eshte-plot-shqiptare/ |archive-date=16 April 2021 |access-date=17 March 2021 |publisher=The Albanian}}{{Cite book |last=Costantini |first=Costanzo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzd3redagIEC&pg=PA134 |title=Le Regine del Cinema |publisher=Gremese Editore |year=1997 |isbn=978-8877421388 |pages=135–137 |language=it |trans-title=The Queens Of Cinema}}}} taught classical drama at the Sofikós school in Corinth. She recalled that she was always acting as a child, making dolls out of rags and sticks; after a touring theatre visited the village performing Greek tragedies with the women tearing their hair, she used to tie a black scarf around her head and perform for the other children.{{Cite book |last1=Segrave |first1=Kerry |url=https://archive.org/details/continentalactre0000segr/page/92/mode/2up?view=theater |title=The Continental Actress: European film stars of the postwar era – biographies, criticism, filmographies |last2=Martin |first2=Linda |date=1990 |publisher=McFarland & Company|isbn=9780899505107 |pages=92–97}} The family moved to Athens when she was seven years old. She was educated from age 15 at the National Theatre of Greece Drama School in Athens, taking classes in dance and singing.{{Cite web |title=Papas, Irene, nata Lelekou |url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/papas-irene-nata-lelekou_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191026075654/http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/papas-irene-nata-lelekou_(Enciclopedia-Italiana) |archive-date=26 October 2019 |access-date=27 August 2018 |publisher=Enciclopedia Italiana - V Appendice (1994)}} She found the acting style advocated by the school old-fashioned, formal, and stylised, and rebelled against it, causing her to have to repeat a year; she eventually graduated in 1948.

Papas began her acting career in Greece in variety and traditional theatre, in plays by Ibsen, Shakespeare, and classical Greek tragedy, before moving into film in 1951. She continued to appear on stage from time to time, including in New York City in productions such as Dostoevsky's The Idiot.{{cite web |title=Irene Papas: The Greatest Greek Actress |url=https://www.greekgateway.com/celebrity/irene-papas-the-greatest-greek-actress/ |website=Greek Gateway |access-date=14 September 2022 |date=4 August 2022}} She played in Iphigenia in Aulis in Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre in 1968.{{Cite web |title=Irene Papas and Christopher Walken in the stage production Iphigenia in Aulis, Circle in the Square, 1968 |url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/b0360416-6aba-3cb0-e040-e00a180607bd |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029231218/https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/b0360416-6aba-3cb0-e040-e00a180607bd |archive-date=29 October 2020 |access-date=7 March 2021 |publisher=New York Public Library}}

She starred in Medea in 1973 on Broadway. Reviewing the production in the New York Times, drama critic Clive Barnes described her as a "very fine, controlled Medea", smouldering with a "carefully dampened passion", constantly fierce.{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Clive |date=18 January 1973 |title=Stage: Circle Presents New 'Medea' |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/18/archives/stage-circle-presents-new-medea-irene-papas-is-cast-as-murderous.html?_r=0 |url-status=live |access-date=27 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908130948/https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/18/archives/stage-circle-presents-new-medea-irene-papas-is-cast-as-murderous.html?_r=0 |archive-date=8 September 2018}}

Theatre critic Walter Kerr also praised the performance. Both saw in her portrayal what Barnes called an "unrelenting determination and unwavering desire for justice".{{Cite book |last=Hartigan |first=Karelisa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=maRl125pf10C&pg=PA53 |title=Greek Tragedy on the American Stage: Ancient Drama in the Commercial Theater, 1882-1994 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-313-29283-5 |pages=53–55}} She appeared in The Bacchae in 1980 at Circle in the Square, and in Electra at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in 1985.

File:Clytemnestra by John Collier, 1882.jpg, such as Clytemnestra in Euripides's play Iphigenia in Aulis. Painting of Clytemnestra by John Collier, 1882]]

Papas was discovered by Elia Kazan in Greece, where she achieved widespread fame. Her first film work was a small part in Nikos Tsiforos's 1948 Fallen Angels (Greek, "Hamenoi angeloi").{{Cite web |title=Irene Papas |url=http://www.cinemagraphe.com/irene-papas.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302025549/http://www.cinemagraphe.com/irene-papas.php |archive-date=2 March 2017 |access-date=1 March 2017 |publisher=Cinemagraphe}} She began to attract attention with her role in Frixos Iliadis's 1952 film Dead City (Greek, "Nekri Politeia"). The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, where Papas was welcomed by the international press, and photographed spending time with the wealthy Aga Khan.{{Cite web |title=ΒΙΟΓΡΑΦΊΕΣ ΘΈΑΤΡΟ - ΚΙΝΗΜΑΤΟΓΡΆΦΟΣ Ειρήνη Παπά |trans-title=Theatre - Cinema Biography Irene Papas |url=https://www.sansimera.gr/biographies/2073 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701192601/https://www.sansimera.gr/biographies/2073 |archive-date=1 July 2020 |access-date=1 July 2020 |publisher=Sansimera |language=el}} Greek filmmakers thought her a noncommercial actress, and she tried her hand abroad, signing with Lux Film in Italy, where the publicity for Dead City was enough to launch her as a film star. She played in Lux's 1954 films Attila and Theodora, Slave Empress, which attracted Hollywood's attention. Many other films followed, both in Greece and internationally.

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She was a leading figure in cinematic transcriptions of ancient tragedy, playing the title roles in George Tzavellas's Antigone (1961) and Michael Cacoyannis's Electra (1962), with her powerful portrayal of the doomed heroine; this brought her star status. She played Helen in Cacoyannis's The Trojan Women (1971) opposite Katharine Hepburn, and Clytemnestra with "smoldering eyes", according to The New York Times,{{Cite news |last=Reed |first=Rex |date=24 December 1967 |title=Irene Doesn't Believe in Irene |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/12/24/archives/irene-doesnt-believe-in-irene-why-irene-doesnt-believe-in-irene.html |url-status=live |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706014828/https://www.nytimes.com/1967/12/24/archives/irene-doesnt-believe-in-irene-why-irene-doesnt-believe-in-irene.html |archive-date=6 July 2022}} in his Iphigenia (1977).{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Papas, Irene |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/papas-irene |access-date=27 February 2017 |last=Kemp |first=Philip |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227233607/http://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/papas-irene |archive-date=27 February 2017 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |title=Electra/ Elektra |url=http://greekfilmfestival.com.au/filmfestival06/sydney/films/electra.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028224025/https://greekfilmfestival.com.au/filmfestival06/sydney/films/electra.htm |archive-date=28 October 2020 |access-date=8 September 2018 |publisher=The Sydney Greek Film Festival 2006}}

Papas became fluent in Italian, and many of her films were made in that language. She said Cacoyannis was the only director that she was really comfortable with, describing herself as "too obedient" to stand up to other directors. Cacoyannis said that she was part of his decision to make Iphigenia, forming his image of Clytemnestra with her power and physique, and her unselfpitying, impersonal anger against the injustice of life, something that in his view was accessible to actors from countries like Greece that had experienced long years of oppression.

Alejandro Valverde García described Papas's part in The Trojan Women as "the most convincing cinematographic Helen that has ever been represented", noting that the script was written with her in mind.{{Cite journal |last=García |first=Alejandro Valverde |date=1971 |title=A Greek Tragedy against the abuses of power: 'The Trojan Women' (1971) by Michael Cacoyannis |url=https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/MGST/article/viewFile/14491/12916 |url-status=live |journal=Modern Greek Studies |issue=19 |pages=325–343 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730222149/https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/MGST/article/viewFile/14491/12916 |archive-date=30 July 2020 |access-date=6 March 2021}}

Papas debuted in American film with a bit part in the B-movie The Man from Cairo (1953); her next American film was a much larger role as Jocasta Constantine, with James Cagney, in the Western Tribute to a Bad Man (1956). She then starred in films such as The Guns of Navarone (1961) and Cacoyannis's Zorba the Greek (1964), based on Nikos Kazantzakis's novel of the same name, set to Mikis Theodorakis's music, establishing her reputation internationally.{{Cite book |last1=McDonald |first1=Marianne |title=Classical Myth & Culture in the Cinema |last2=Winkler |first2=Martin M. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-513004-1 |editor-last=Martin M. Winkler |pages=72–89 |chapter=Michael Cacoyannis and Irene Papas on Greek Tragedy |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f4vCQYhKCvcC&pg=PA72}}

In The Guns of Navarone, she stars as a resistance fighter involved in the action, an addition to Alistair Maclean's novel, providing a love interest and a strong female character.{{Cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |author-link=Bosley Crowther |date=23 June 1961 |title=Screen: A Robust Drama:'Guns of Navarone' Is at Two Theatres |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/06/23/archives/screen-a-robust-dramaguns-of-navarone-is-at-two-theatres.html |url-status=live |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201006054855/https://www.nytimes.com/1961/06/23/archives/screen-a-robust-dramaguns-of-navarone-is-at-two-theatres.html |archive-date=6 October 2020}}{{Cite web |last=Massie |first=Mike |date=22 June 1961 |title=[Review] The Guns of Navarone (1961) |url=https://gonewiththetwins.com/new/guns-of-navarone-1961/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009115409/http://gonewiththetwins.com/new/guns-of-navarone-1961/ |archive-date=9 October 2020 |access-date=5 March 2021 |website=Gone with the Twins}}{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Andrew C. |date=30 June 2019 |title=[Review] The Guns of Navarone |url=http://lecinemaparadiso.co.uk/review/the-guns-of-navarone |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914114920/http://lecinemaparadiso.co.uk/review/the-guns-of-navarone |archive-date=14 September 2022 |access-date=5 March 2021 |website=Le Cinema Paradiso}} Gerasimus Katsan comments that she plays a "hard as nails" partisan in The Guns of Navarone, "capable, unafraid, stoic, patriotic, and heroic"; when the men hesitate, she kills the traitorous Anna; but although she interacts romantically with Andreas (Anthony Quinn), she remains "cool and rational", revealing little of her sensual persona; she is as tough as the men, like the stereotype of a Greek village woman, but she is contrasted with them in the film.

Bosley Crowther called her appearance in Zorba "dark and intense as the widow".{{Cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |date=18 December 1964 |title=Screen: 'Zorba, the Greek' Is at Sutton:Anthony Quinn Stars in Adaptation of Novel |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/18/archives/screen-zorba-the-greek-is-at-suttonanthony-quinn-stars-in.html |url-status=live |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603193759/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/18/archives/screen-zorba-the-greek-is-at-suttonanthony-quinn-stars-in.html |archive-date=3 June 2021}} Katsan said that she was most often remembered as the "sensual widow" in Zorba. Katsan wrote that she was again contrasted to the other village women, playing "the beautiful and tortured widow" who is eventually hunted to death with what Vrasidas Karalis called "elemental nobility".{{Cite book |last=Karalis |first=Vrasidas |title=A History of Greek Cinema |publisher=Continuum |year=2012 |isbn=978-1441135001 |page=98}} The scholar of film Jefferson Hunter wrote that Papas helped lift Zorba from being merely an "exuberant" film with the stark passion of her subplot role.{{Cite journal |last=Hunter |first=Jefferson |year=2013 |title=DVD Chronicle |journal=The Hopkins Review |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=408–416 |doi=10.1353/thr.2013.0065 |issn=1939-9774 |s2cid=201770781}}

This success did not earn her an easy life; she stated that she did not work for 2 years after Electra, despite the prizes and acclamation; and again, she was out of work for 18 months after Zorba. It turned out to be her most popular film, but she said she earned only $10,000 from it.

Papas played leading roles in several critically acclaimed films. In Z (1969), her political activist's widow has been called "indelible".{{Cite book |last=Monaco |first=James |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaoffi00mona |title=The Encyclopedia of Film |publisher=Perigee Books |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-399-51604-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaoffi00mona/page/414 414] |url-access=registration}} She played an admired Catherine of Aragon in Anne of the Thousand Days, opposite Richard Burton and Geneviève Bujold in 1969. In 1976, she starred in The Message about the origin of Islam, a film which Mark Cousins stated was "perhaps seen by as many people as...any film in cinema history."Cousins, Mark The Story of Film: An Odyssey, Episode 11 - The Arrival of Multiplexes and Asian Mainstream. In 1982, she appeared in Lion of the Desert. One of her last film appearances was in Captain Corelli's Mandolin in 2001,{{Cite web |last=Elley |first=Derek |date=24 April 2001 |title=Review: 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' |url=https://variety.com/2001/film/reviews/captain-corelli-s-mandolin-2-1200467693/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227231755/http://variety.com/2001/film/reviews/captain-corelli-s-mandolin-2-1200467693/ |archive-date=27 February 2017 |access-date=27 February 2017 |publisher=Variety}} where in Katsan's view she was underused reprising her strong peasant woman from The Guns of Navarone and the widow from Zorba.

File:Irene_Papas_publicity_still_with_Hellenic_Statue.jpg to present her as the "quintessential idea of Greek beauty".]]

The Enciclopedia Italiana described Papas as a typical Mediterranean beauty, with a lovely voice both in singing and acting, greatly talented and with an adventurous spirit. Olga Kourelou added that film-makers from Cacoyannis onwards have made systematic use of her looks: "Her chalk-white skin and long black hair, dark brown eyes, thick arched eyebrows, and straight nose make Papas appear as the quintessential idea of Greek beauty." She writes that the camera has lingered in close-up on Papas's face, and that she is often photographed in profile, intentionally recalling the iconography of ancient Greece. Kourelou gives as example the profile shot in Iphigenia where Papas sings a lullaby to her daughter, in front of a Hellenic sculpture of a woman, the shot bringing out the resemblance of their facial features; she notes that posters of Papas have often used the same motif.

Gerasimus Katsan wrote that she is the best-known and most recognisable Greek film star, "an actor with incredible range, power, and subtlety".{{Cite journal |last=Katsan |first=Gerasimus |date=2016 |title=The Hollywood Films of Irene Papas |url=https://journals.sfu.ca/jmh/index.php/jmh/article/viewFile/294/296 |url-status=live |journal=The Journal of Modern Hellenism |issue=32 |pages=31–44 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026195917/https://journals.sfu.ca/jmh/index.php/jmh/article/viewFile/294/296 |archive-date=26 October 2020 |access-date=6 March 2021}} In the view of the film critic Philip Kemp,

{{blockquote|From the opening shot of Michael Cacoyannis's Electra, as the proud, implacable face emerges from encroaching shadows, it becomes impossible to imagine anyone else as Euripides's heroine. Erect, immutably dignified, dark eyes burning fiercely beneath heavy black brows, Irene Papas visibly embodies the sublimity of classical Greece, tragic yet serene.}}

Kemp described Papas as an awe-inspiring presence, which paradoxically limited her career. He admired her roles in Cacoyannis's films, including the defiant Helen of Troy in The Trojan Women; the vengeful, grief-stricken Clytemnestra in Iphigenia; and "memorably" as the cool but sensual widow in Zorba the Greek. David Thomson, in his Biographical Dictionary of Film, called Papas's manner in Iphigenia "blatant declaiming".{{Cite book |last=Thomson |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=heVvObIz9BwC&pg=PT304 |title=The New Biographical Dictionary Of Film |publisher=Little, Brown |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7481-0850-3 |edition=5th |page=304}} She stood out in Costa-Gavras's 1968 political film Z, based on a real-life assassination, and in Ruy Guerra's 1983 Eréndira, with a screenplay by the novelist Gabriel García Márquez.

The film critic Roger Ebert observed that there were many "pretty girls" in cinema "but not many women", and called Papas a great actress. Ebert noted her uphill struggle, her height, {{convert|5|ft|10|in|m}} limiting the leading men she could play alongside, her accent limiting the roles she could take, and that "her unusual beauty is not the sort that superstar actresses like to compete with."{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=13 July 1969 |title=Interview with Irene Papas |url=http://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/interview-with-irene-papas |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227232003/http://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/interview-with-irene-papas |archive-date=27 February 2017 |access-date=27 February 2017}}{{Cite magazine |date=1962 |title=Spencer Tracy |magazine=Look |volume=26 |page=42 |quote=long before production began, and asked 'Who is this broad Irene Papas?' Miss Papas was a Greek girl we had signed to star with him in the picture. He asked me about her height, and when I told him she was a big, rawboned 5 feet 10 inches, Tracy, who is about 5 feet 10, walked away.}} Ordinary actors, he suggested, had trouble sharing the screen with Papas. All the same, her presence in many well-known movies, wrote Ebert, inspired "something of a cult".

File:Irene Papas - Trojan Women.jpg (1971), where she played Helen of Troy]]

In his book on Greek cinema, Mel Schuster called Papas a great actress on the strength of her roles in four of Cacoyannis's films. He found her stage presence awe-inspiring, especially in Electra, and so powerful as to limit the film roles she could take, as she seemed to be an elemental force of nature. That resulted, Schuster stated, in Hollywood's treating her as "a Mother Earth who suffered and survived, but rarely talked or acted".{{Cite book |last=Schuster |first=Mel |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780810811966/page/256/mode/2up?view=theater |title=The Contemporary Greek Cinema |date=1979 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810811966 |pages=256–258}} That made her Helen in The Trojan Women, pacing up and down like a caged panther "with just the searching eyes darting through the bars", a "marvelous surprise", as Hollywood saw that in fact she was also an accomplished actor. In his view, casting her as the beautiful Helen was daring, as Papas was not, in 1971, as conventionally beautiful as a Hedy Lamarr or an Elizabeth Taylor; if she was the face that launched a thousand ships, then she brought "a force which might indeed have inspired a holocaust". Schuster commented that in each of the four Cacoyannis films, one shot of Papas's gave "indelible pleasure" and remained etched in the memory. In Iphigenia, that shot was in his view wisely placed at the end, under the closing credits, so that viewers see her until that moment as a versatile and powerfully histrionic actress, appropriate both to the ancient mythic dimensions of the tale and to a modern psychological reading of the myth.

Bella Vivante contrasted Papas's dark-haired Helen in The Trojan Women with the conventional choice of a blonde, Rossana Podestà, in Robert Wise's 1956 Helen of Troy. Where Wise emphasised Helen's seductive gaze and framed Podesta as an ideal beauty for the audience to look at, Cacoyannis made the scenes framed as Papas's gaze provide "an empowering female identity".{{Cite journal |last=Giofkou |first=Daphne |year=2014 |title=[Review] 'Ancient Greek Women in Film', Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013 |url=https://philarchive.org/archive/GIOAGW |journal=The Kelvingrove Review |publisher=University of Glasgow |issue=13 |at=Article 2}}

The scholar of Greek, Gerasimus Katsan, called her the most recognizable and best-known Greek film star, with "range, power, and subtlety", stating that her work made her a kind of national hero. She acted strong women with "beauty and sensuality, but also fierce independence and spirit".

Robert Stam wrote of Papas's role in Ruy Guerra's 1983 Eréndira that "the near-indestructible grandmother [of the eponymous young prostitute] reigns supreme"; she gives the effect of "a kind of queen" both through the regal props and her powerful performance, at once villainous and sympathetic, "an oracle who speaks truths, especially about men and love".{{Cite journal |last=Stam |first=Robert |year=1984 |title=[Review] Erendira by Alain Queffelean, Ruy Guerra, Gabriel García Márquez |journal=Cinéaste |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=50–52 |jstor=41692571}}

Kourelou wrote that although Papas had appeared in the films of both European and American "auteurs", she was best known as a tragedienne, citing the film-maker Manoel de Oliveira's remark that "this great tragedienne is the grand and beautiful image that embodies the deepest essence of the female soul. She is the image of Greece of all time ..., the mother of western civilisation".{{Cite book |last=Kourelou |first=Olga |title=Cinemas, Identities and Beyond |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-5275-5667-6 |editor-last=D. H. Fleming |pages=212–226 |chapter='A True Goddess': Irene Papas and the Representation of Greekness |editor-last2=Cheung Ruby |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qLzxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA212}} In Kourelou's view, Papas's tragic persona "offers an image of sublimated beauty with a transcendental quality"; she notes that Papas is neither "sexualised nor glamorised" with the single exception of her role as Helen in The Trojan Women.

In 1973, she was honoured with a photo shoot by the Magnum photographer Ferdinando Scianna.{{Cite web |date=1973 |title=Ferdinando Scianna - IRENE PAPAS |url=https://pro.magnumphotos.com/Catalogue/Ferdinando-Scianna/1973/IRENE-PAPAS-NN135658.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180910131836/https://pro.magnumphotos.com/Catalogue/Ferdinando-Scianna/1973/IRENE-PAPAS-NN135658.html |archive-date=10 September 2018 |access-date=10 September 2018 |publisher=Magnum Photos}}

Asked about her acting for film and stage, and in classical and modern films, Papas stated that the acting techniques and method of expressing oneself are the same. One might, she said, need to use a louder voice on a classical stage, but "you always use the same soul". She denied having any secret to acting with such energy, but said that one's attitude to death was what drove action. Death was in her view "the greatest catalyst in human life"; while waiting to die, one had to decide what to do with one's life.

File:Mikis Theodorakis Fabrik 070004.jpg.]]

In 1969, the RCA label released Papas' vinyl LP Songs of Theodorakis (INTS 1033). This has 11 songs sung in Greek, conducted by Harry Lemonopoulos and produced by Andy Wiswell, with sleeve notes in English by Michael Cacoyannis. It was released on CD in 2005 (FM 1680).{{Cite web |title=Irene Pappas Sings Mikis Theodorakis |url=http://fmrecords.net/irene-pappas-sings-mikis-theodorakis/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107233426/http://fmrecords.net/irene-pappas-sings-mikis-theodorakis/ |archive-date=7 January 2019 |access-date=7 January 2019 |publisher=FM Records}} Papas knew Mikis Theodorakis from working with him on Zorba the Greek as early as 1964. The critic Clive Barnes said of her singing performance on the album that "Irene Pappas is known to the public as an actress, but that is why she sings with such intensity, her very appearance, with her raven hair, is an equally dynamic means of expression".{{Cite web |title=Irene Pappas sings Mikis Theodorakis |url=http://boutique.info-grece.com/papas-irene-pappas-sings-mikis-theodorakis-p-6804.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131028075102/http://boutique.info-grece.com/papas-irene-pappas-sings-mikis-theodorakis-p-6804.html |archive-date=28 October 2013 |access-date=8 September 2018 |website=Info-Greece}}

In 1972, she appeared on the album 666 by the Greek rock group Aphrodite's Child on the track "∞" (infinity). She chants "I was, I am, I am to come" repeatedly and wildly over a percussive backing, worrying the label, Mercury, who hesitated over releasing the album, causing controversy with her "graphic orgasm".{{Cite web |last=Dome |first=Malcolm |date=27 January 2015 |title=Malcolm Dome looks back on the impact of Aphrodite's Child's mythic prog masterpiece |url=http://teamrock.com/feature/2015-01-27/666-a-reappraisal |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228080751/http://teamrock.com/feature/2015-01-27/666-a-reappraisal |archive-date=28 February 2017 |access-date=27 February 2017 |quote=The band's label, Mercury, were certainly left bemused. In fact, they were so horrified by the scope and challenge of the double album that they initially refused to release it. In particular, Papas' graphic orgasm during Infinity struck the wrong chord with them. Eventually, the company relented and agreed to put it out on their Vertigo imprint.}}{{Cite journal |last=Henshaw |first=Laurie |date=19 August 1972 |title=The Greeks have a word for it |url=http://elsew.com/data/mema72.htm |url-status=live |journal=Melody Maker |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709190327/http://elsew.com/data/mema72.htm |archive-date=9 July 2021 |access-date=27 February 2017}}

In 1979, Polydor released her album of eight Greek folk songs entitled Odes, with electronic music performed (and partly composed) by Vangelis.{{Cite web |last=Trunk |first=Jonny |title=Vangelis & Irene Papas - Odoes [sic] |url=http://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/odoes |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180913040057/https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/odoes |archive-date=13 September 2018 |access-date=26 June 2020 |website=Record Collector magazine}} The lyrics were co-written by Arianna Stassinopoulos.{{Cite web |title=Vangelis and Irene Papas lyrics - Odes lyrics (English translation) |url=https://www.vangelislyrics.com/vangelis-lyrics-collaborations/vangelis-and-irene-papas-odes-english-translation-lyrics.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629201839/https://www.vangelislyrics.com/vangelis-lyrics-collaborations/vangelis-and-irene-papas-odes-english-translation-lyrics.htm |archive-date=29 June 2020 |access-date=26 June 2020 |website=Lyrics of Music by Vangelis |quote=(Greek) Lyrics: Irene Papas and Arianna Stassinopoulos.}} They collaborated again in 1986 for Rapsodies, an electronic rendition of seven Byzantine liturgy hymns, also on Polydor; Jonny Trunk wrote that there was "no doubting the power, fire and earthy delights of Papas' voice".{{Cite web |last=Trunk |first=Jonny |date=November 2007 |title=Vangelis & Irene Papas - Rapsodies |url=http://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/rhapsodies |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001174723/https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/rhapsodies |archive-date=1 October 2016 |access-date=26 June 2020 |website=Record Collector magazine |issue=342}}

In 1967, Papas, a lifelong liberal, called for a "cultural boycott" against the "Fourth Reich", meaning the military government of Greece at that time.{{Cite news |date=20 July 1967 |title=Irene Pappas Asks Boycott Of Greece's 'Fourth Reich' |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9901EED91E3CE731A25753C2A9619C946691D6CF&legacy=true |url-status=live |access-date=27 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227233218/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9901EED91E3CE731A25753C2A9619C946691D6CF&legacy=true |archive-date=27 February 2017}}{{Cite web |last=Hope |first=Kerin |date=14 July 1986 |title=Irene Papas Wants to Direct Shakespeare |url=https://apnews.com/article/c5d2720fafc2e2aed281eab5d2dc1abb |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220705191917/https://apnews.com/article/c5d2720fafc2e2aed281eab5d2dc1abb |archive-date=5 July 2022 |access-date=5 March 2021 |publisher=Associated Press}} Her opposition to the regime sent her, and other artists such as Mikis Theodorakis, whose songs she sang, into exile when the military junta came to power in Greece in 1967; she moved into temporary exile in Italy and New York.{{Cite web |date=1 November 2001 |title=Irene Papas: Das Porträt |url=https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/7355.irene-papas.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908202321/https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/7355.irene-papas.html |archive-date=8 September 2018 |access-date=8 September 2018 |publisher=Neues Deutschland: Sozialistische Tageszeitung |language=de}}{{Cite journal |last=Loutzaki |first=Irene |date=2001 |title=Folk Dance in Political Rhythms |journal=Yearbook for Traditional Music |volume=33 |pages=127–137 |doi=10.2307/1519637 |jstor=1519637|s2cid=156081242 }} When the junta fell in 1974, she returned to Greece, spending time both in Athens and in her family's village house in Chiliomodi as well as continuing to work in Rome.

File:Marlon Brando in The Men.jpg, whom she met in 1954, as "the great passion of my life".]]

In 1947, she married the film director Alkis Papas; they divorced in 1951.{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2000 |title=Papas, Irene |publisher=St. James Press |last=Kemp |first=Philip |editor-last=Pendergast |editor-first=Tom |pages=948–949 |isbn=978-1-55862-452-8 |oclc=44818539 |editor2-last=Pendergast |editor2-first=Sara |encyclopedia=International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers}}

In 1954, she met the actor Marlon Brando, and they had a long love affair, which they kept secret at the time. Fifty years later, when Brando died, she recalled that "I have never since loved a man as I loved Marlon. He was the great passion of my life, absolutely the man I cared about the most and also the one I esteemed most, two things that generally are difficult to reconcile".{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Steven |date=7 July 2004 |title=Irene Papas Comes Forward About A Love Affair With The Late Marlon Brando |url=http://www.contactmusic.com/marlon-brando/news/greek-actress-papas.-i-was-brando.s-secret-lover |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107145418/http://www.contactmusic.com/marlon-brando/news/greek-actress-papas.-i-was-brando.s-secret-lover |archive-date=7 November 2018 |access-date=10 September 2018 |publisher=Contact Music}}

Her second marriage was to the film producer José Kohn in 1957; that marriage was later annulled. She was the aunt of the film director Manousos Manousakis and the actor Aias Manthopoulos.{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=Cloudy Sunday |url=http://nysephardifilmfestival.org/film/cloudy-sunday/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309151552/http://nysephardifilmfestival.org/film/cloudy-sunday/ |archive-date=9 March 2017 |access-date=26 June 2020 |website=NY Sephardic Film Festival}}{{Cite news |last=Gates |first=Anita |date=14 September 2022 |title=Irene Papas, Actress in 'Zorba the Greek' and Greek Tragedies, Dies at 96 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/obituaries/irene-papas-dead.html |url-status=live |access-date=14 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914095005/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/obituaries/irene-papas-dead.html |archive-date=14 September 2022}}

In 2003 she served on the board of directors of the Anna-Marie Foundation, a fund which provided assistance to people in rural areas of Greece.[http://www.greekroyalfamily.gr/en/press/interviews/426-o-vasilefs-konstantinos-kai-i-vasilissa-anna-maria-kalesan-ton-typo-stis-28-avgoustou-gia-an-tous-animerosoun-gia-tis-eksalikseis-pou-afosorun-sto-idrima-anna-maria-.html "Press Conference on the developments regarding the 'Anna-Maria' Foundation"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908015742/https://www.greekroyalfamily.gr/en/press/interviews/426-o-vasilefs-konstantinos-kai-i-vasilissa-anna-maria-kalesan-ton-typo-stis-28-avgoustou-gia-an-tous-animerosoun-gia-tis-eksalikseis-pou-afosorun-sto-idrima-anna-maria-.html |date=8 September 2018 }}, greekroyalfamily.org, 28 August 2003. In 2013 she began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease.{{Cite web |date=9 July 2018 |title=Irene Papas: Her niece reveals all the truth about her state of health |url=https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=el&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.altsantiri.gr%2Flifestyle%2Feirini-pappa-i-anipsia-tis-apokalyptei-oli-tin-alitheia-gia-tin-katastasi-tis-ygeias-tis%2F&prev=search |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207144046/https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=el&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.altsantiri.gr%2Flifestyle%2Feirini-pappa-i-anipsia-tis-apokalyptei-oli-tin-alitheia-gia-tin-katastasi-tis-ygeias-tis%2F&prev=search |archive-date=7 December 2019 |access-date=20 September 2018 |publisher=Altsantiri}} Papas spent her final years in home care at her niece's house in Kifissia. She died there on 14 September 2022, at the age of 93, and was interred at the Chiliomodi Cemetery, Corinthia.

• 1961: 11th Berlin International Film Festival (Best Actress, for the film Antigone){{Cite book |last=Sloan |first=Jane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G7excPrfowYC&pg=PA99 |title=Reel Women: An International Directory of Contemporary Feature Films about Women |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4616-7082-7 |page=99}}{{Cite book |last=Tzavalas |first=Trifon |url=http://www.huc.org/Publications/Greek%20Cinema%20Volume%201%20100%20Years%20of%20Film%20History%201900-2000%20080112.pdf |title=Greek Cinema Volume 1 100 Years of Film History 1900-2000 |date=2012 |publisher=Hellenic University Club of Southern California |isbn=978-1-938385-11-7 |page=196 |quote=Irene Pappas received the Best Performance Award. |access-date=26 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025213311/http://www.huc.org/Publications/Greek%20Cinema%20Volume%201%20100%20Years%20of%20Film%20History%201900-2000%20080112.pdf |archive-date=25 October 2020 |url-status=live}}
• 1962: Thessaloniki International Film Festival (Best Actress, for the film Elektra){{Cite web |title=awards 1962 |url=http://tiff.filmfestival.gr/default.aspx?lang=el-GR&page=971&year=1962 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929002023/http://tiff.filmfestival.gr/default.aspx?lang=el-GR&page=971&year=1962 |archive-date=29 September 2015 |access-date=20 August 2015 |publisher=Thessaloniki Film Festival}}
• 1971: National Board of Review (Best Actress, for the film The Trojan Women){{Cite web |title=Awards for 1971 |url=http://www.nbrmp.org/awards/past.cfm?year=1971 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040316084306/http://www.nbrmp.org/awards/past.cfm?year=1971 |archive-date=16 March 2004 |access-date=8 March 2017 |publisher=National Board of Review}}
• 1987 Venice Film Festival jury president{{Cite web |last=Nolfi |first=Joey |date=5 July 2017 |title=Annette Bening named Venice Film Festival jury president, ending 10-year male streak |url=https://ew.com/movies/2017/07/05/annette-bening-2017-venice-film-festival-jury-president/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126002404/https://ew.com/movies/2017/07/05/annette-bening-2017-venice-film-festival-jury-president/ |archive-date=26 January 2021 |access-date=7 March 2021 |publisher=Entertainment Weekly}}
• 1993: Golden Arrow Award for lifetime achievement at Hamptons International Film Festival{{Cite news |date=25 October 1993 |title=Awards at Hamptons Film Festival |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/25/movies/awards-at-hamptons-film-festival.html |url-status=live |access-date=6 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307022719/http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/25/movies/awards-at-hamptons-film-festival.html |archive-date=7 March 2018}}
• 1993: Flaiano Prize for Theatre (Career Award){{Cite web |title=FLAIANO INTERNATIONAL AWARDS WINNERS 1993: Flaiano Awards of Theatre |url=https://www.premiflaiano.com/421/1993.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909155703/https://www.premiflaiano.com/421/1993.html |archive-date=9 September 2021 |access-date=7 March 2021 |publisher=Premi Flaiano |quote=Honorary Award to career achievements: Irene Papas}}

• 2009: Leone d'oro alla carriera (Golden Lion career award), Venice Biennale{{Cite news |date=20 February 2009 |title=Irene Papas Leone d' oro alla carriera |language=it |work=La Repubblica |url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2009/02/20/irene-papas-leone-oro-alla-carriera.html |url-status=live |access-date=6 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307082415/http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2009/02/20/irene-papas-leone-oro-alla-carriera.html |archive-date=7 March 2018 |quote=Noi italiani la ricordiamo ancora come la bella Penelope dell' Odissea tv (anno 1969): Irene Papas la grande attrice greca, riceve alle 18 il Leone d' oro alla carriera del Festival Internazionale del Teatro della Biennale di Venezia diretto da Maurizio Scaparro dedicato al Mediterraneo che si apre oggi. L' attrice interpreterà "Medea", nell' originale di Euripide e nella riscrittura di Corrado Alvaro.}}

She received the honours of Commander of the Order of the Phoenix in Greece, Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in France, and Commander of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise in Spain.{{Cite web |date=2015 |title=Irene Papas |url=http://www.whoswho.de/bio/irene-papas.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180910164532/http://www.whoswho.de/bio/irene-papas.html |archive-date=10 September 2018 |access-date=10 September 2018 |publisher=Who's Who |language=de}}

In 2017, it was announced that the National Theatre of Greece's drama school would move to a new "Irene Papas – Athens School" on Agiou Konstantinou Street in Athens from 2018.{{Cite web |date=2017 |title=Relocation of the Drama School to the "Irene Papas – Athens School" {{!}} National Theatre of Greece |url=http://www.latsis-foundation.org/eng/education-science-culture/culture/grants/all/2017/relocation-of-the-drama-school-to-the-ldquoirene-papas-athens-schoolrdquo |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920235019/http://www.latsis-foundation.org/eng/education-science-culture/culture/grants/all/2017/relocation-of-the-drama-school-to-the-ldquoirene-papas-athens-schoolrdquo |archive-date=20 September 2018 |access-date=20 September 2018 |publisher=Latsis Foundation}}

• 1968 : Songs of Theodorakis, in concert in New York, music conducted by Harry Lemonopoulos{{Cite AV media |title=Songs of Theodorakis |date=1968 |last=Papas |first=Irene |type=LP |publisher=RCA Victor (FPM-215 and FSP-215)}}
• 1972 : 666 by Aphrodite's Child – Chanted vocals on "∞"
• 1979 : Ωδές – Odes – with Vangelis{{Cite AV media |title=Odes |date=2007 |last=Papas |first=Irene |type=CD |publisher=Polydor (06025 1720633 5) |quote=Vocals – Irene Papas |last2=Vangelis |author2-link=Vangelis}}
• 1986 : Ραψωδίες – Rapsodies – with Vangelis

{{div col|colwidth=36em}}

• {{ill|Χαμένοι άγγελοι|lt=Fallen Angels|el}} (Greek, "Hamenoi angeloi", 1948) as Liana{{Cite web |title=Irene Papas |url=http://www.cinemagraphe.com/irene-papas.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302025549/http://www.cinemagraphe.com/irene-papas.php |archive-date=2 March 2017 |access-date=1 March 2017 |publisher=Cinemagraphe}}
• Dead City (Greek, "Nekri Politeia", 1951) as Lena
• The Unfaithfuls (Italian, "Le Infideli", 1953) as Luisa Azzali
• Come Back! (Italian, "Torna!", 1953){{Cite book |last=Bosisio |first=Paolo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8rkaAQAAIAAJ |title="Ho pensato a voi scrivendo Gigliola--", Teresa Franchini, un'attrice per D'Annunzio |publisher=Bulzoni |year=2000 |isbn=978-88-8319-529-7 |page=298}}
• The Man from Cairo (Italian, "Dramma del Casbah", 1953) as Yvonne Lebeau
• Vortex (Italian, "Vortice", 1953) as Clara
• Theodora, Slave Empress (Italian, "Teodora, Imperatrice di Bisanzio", 1954) as Faidia
• Attila (Italian, "Attila, il flagello di Dio", 1954) as Grune
• Tribute to a Bad Man (1956) as Jocasta Constantine
• The Power and the Prize (1956)
• Bouboulina (Greek, 1959) as Laskarina Bouboulina{{Cite book |last1=Ρούβας |first1=Άγγελος |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zIYLAQAAMAAJ |title=Ελληνικος κινηματογραφος, 1905-1970 |last2=Σταθακοπουλος |first2=Χρηστος |publisher=Ελληνικα Γραμματα |year=2005 |isbn=978-960-406-777-0 |page=203 |language=el}}
• The Guns of Navarone (1961) as Maria
• Antigone (Greek, 1961) as Antigone
• Electra (Greek, 1962) as Electra
• The Moon-Spinners (1964) as Sophia
• Zorba the Greek (1964) as the widow
• Trap for the Assassin (French, "Roger la Honte", 1966) as Julia de Noirville
• {{ill|Witness Out of Hell|de|Zeugin aus der Hölle}} (German, "Zeugin aus der Hölle", 1966) as Lea Weiss
• We Still Kill the Old Way (Italian, "A ciascuno il suo", 1967) as Luisa Roscio
• The Desperate Ones (Spanish, "Más allá de las montañas", 1967) as Ajmi
• The Odyssey (Italian, "L'Odissea", 1968, TV Mini-series) as Penelope
• The Brotherhood (1968) as Ida Ginetta
• {{ill|Ecce Homo – I sopravvissuti|lt=Ecce Homo|it}} (Italian, "Ecce Homo – I sopravvissuti", 1968) as Anna{{Cite web |title=Ecce Homo – I sopravvissuti |url=https://www.filmtv.it/film/30072/ecce-homo-i-sopravvissuti/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831002457/https://www.filmtv.it/film/30072/ecce-homo-i-sopravvissuti/ |archive-date=31 August 2018 |access-date=30 August 2018 |publisher=FilmTV.it}}
• Z (French, 1969) as Helene
• A Dream of Kings (1969) as Caliope
• Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) as Queen Katherine
• The Trojan Women (1971) as Helen of Troy
• Oasis of Fear (Un posto ideale per uccidere, 1971) as Barbara Slater{{Cite book |last1=Lancia |first1=Enrico |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YgR46WJuKQ4C&pg=PA122 |title=Le straniere del nostro cinema |last2=Melelli |first2=Fabio |publisher=Gremese Editore |year=2005 |isbn=978-88-8440-350-6 |pages=122–123}}
• Rome Good (Italian, "Roma Bene", 1971) as Elena Teopoulos
• {{ill|N.P. – Il segreto|lt=N.P.|it}} (Italian, "N.P. – Il segreto", 1971) as the housewife{{Cite web |title=N.P. Il Segreto (1970) |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b74e7a4f9 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830210204/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b74e7a4f9 |archive-date=30 August 2018 |access-date=30 August 2018 |publisher=British Film Institute}}
• Don't Torture a Duckling (Italian, "Non si servizia un paperino", 1972) as Dona Aurelia Avallone
• 1931, Once Upon a Time in New York (1972) as Donna Mimma
• Battle of Sutjeska (Yugoslav, "Sutjeska", 1973) as Boro's mother{{Cite web |title=Sutjeska (Battle of Sutjeska) |url=https://www.filmmuseum.at/en/film_program/calendar/production?veranstaltungen_id=1570153815205 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702211058/https://www.filmmuseum.at/en/film_program/calendar/production?veranstaltungen_id=1570153815205 |archive-date=2 July 2020 |access-date=1 July 2020 |publisher=Film Museum (Austria)}}
• I'll Take Her Like a Father (Italian, "Le farò da padre", 1974) as Raimonda Spina Tommaselli
• Moses the Lawgiver (Italian, "Mose", 1974) (TV miniseries) as Zipporah
• Mohammad, Messenger of God (Arabic, "Ar-Risālah", 1976) as Hind bint Utbah
• Blood Wedding (Spanish, "Bodas de Sangre", 1977) as the mother{{Cite web |title=Blood Wedding |url=http://mubi.com/films/blood-wedding--2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002022218/http://mubi.com/films/blood-wedding--2 |archive-date=2 October 2012 |access-date=11 October 2012 |website=mubi}}
• Iphigenia (Greek, 1977) as Clytemnestra
• The Man of Corleone (Italian, "L'uomo di Corleone", 1977)
• Christ Stopped at Eboli (Italian, "Cristo si e fermato a Eboli", 1979) as Giulia
• Bloodline (1979) as Simonetta Palazzi
• {{ill|Un'ombra nell'ombra|it|lt=Ring of Darkness}} (Italian, "Un'ombra nell'ombra", 1979) as Raffaella{{Cite web |title=Un' Ombra Nell'Ombra (1979) |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b750142fb |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830210156/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b750142fb |archive-date=30 August 2018 |access-date=30 August 2018 |publisher=British Film Institute}}
• Lion of the Desert (Arabic, "Asadu alsahra", 1981) as Mabrouka
• The All Pepper Social Worker (Italian, "L'assistente sociale tutto pepe", 1981) as the fairy
• Manuel's Tribulations (French, "Les Tribulations de Manuel", 1982) (TV series)
• The Ballad of Mameluke (French, "La Ballade de Mamlouk", 1982)
• Eréndira (Mexico, 1983) as the grandmother
• {{ill|Afghanistan pourquoi ?|fr|lt=Why Afghanistan?}} (French, "Afghanistan pourquoi?" 1983) as cultural attaché
• The Deserter (Italian, "Il disertore", 1983) as Mariangela
• In the Shade of the Great Oak (Italian, "All'ombra della grande quercia", 1984) (TV mini-series)
• Into the Night (Italian, Tutto in una notte, 1985) as Shaheen Parvizi
• The Assisi Underground (1985){{Cite book |last=Anklewicz |first=Larry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j3C2Y5GAvJMC&pg=PA2002-IA15 |title=Guide to Jewish Films on Video |publisher=KTAV Publishing |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-88125-605-5 |page=2002}} as Mother Giuseppina
• Sweet Country (1987){{Cite book |last=Maltin |first=Leonard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F60TAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT2300 |title=Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide |date=2 September 2014 |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-698-18361-2 |page=2300}} as Mrs. Araya
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987){{Cite book |title=The Film Journal, Volume 92, Issues 1-6 |publisher=Pubsun Corporation |year=1989 |page=6}}{{Cite book |last=Sloan |first=Jane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G7excPrfowYC&pg=PA138 |title=Reel Women, An International Directory of Contemporary Feature Films about Women |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4616-7082-7 |page=138}} as Angela's mother
• High Season (1987){{Cite book |last=Maltin |first=Leonard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F60TAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT1058 |title=Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide |publisher=Penguin |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-698-18361-2 |page=1058}} as Penelope
• {{ill|Un bambino di nome Gesù|it|lt=A Child Named Jesus}} (Italian, "Un bambino di nome Gesù", 1987) (TV film)
• The Cardboard Suitcase (Portuguese, "A Mala de Cartão", 1988) (TV miniseries), as Maria Amélia
• {{ill|Il banchetto di Platone|it|lt=Plato's Banquet}} (Italian, "Il banchetto di Platone", 1988) as Diotima
• Island (1989){{Cite news |last=Benson |first=Sheila |title=Movie Review , Stuck on an 'Island' With Thin Script |work=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-08-ca-2714-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=1 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701093130/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-08-ca-2714-story.html |archive-date=1 July 2020 |quote=The island's permanent resident is Greek-born painter Marquise (Irene Papas), fierce, opinionated, life-embracing--the quintessential Papas character.}} as Marquise
• {{ill|Les Cavaliers aux yeux verts|fr|lt=The Green-eyed Cavaliers}} (French, "Les Cavaliers aux yeux verts", 1990) as Anasthasie Rouch
• {{ill|L'ispettore anticrimine|it|lt=The Detective Inspector}} (Italian, "L'ispettore anticrimine", 1993) as Maria
• Stolen Love (Italian, "Amore Rubato", 1993)
• Jacob (1994) (TV film) as Rebeccah
• Party (1996) as Irene
• The Odyssey (1997) (TV miniseries) as Anticlea
• Anxiety ("Inquietude", 1998) as the mother
• Yerma (Spanish, 1998) as the old pagan woman
• Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001) as Drosoula
• A Talking Picture (2003) as Helena{{Cite web |title=A Talking Picture |date=4 September 2003 |url=https://variety.com/2003/film/awards/a-talking-picture-1200539587/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831002457/https://variety.com/2003/film/awards/a-talking-picture-1200539587/ |archive-date=31 August 2018 |access-date=30 August 2018 |publisher=Variety}}

{{div col end}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{IMDb name|0660327}}
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{discogs artist|Irene Papas}}
• [https://fresques.ina.fr/europe-des-cultures-en/fiche-media/Europe00100/irene-papas-regarding-her-work-as-an-actress.html Irène Papas regarding her work as an actress] (video interview with context and transcript) from Europe of Cultures, 1 June 1980

{{National Board of Review Award for Best Actress}}

{{Venice Film Festival jury presidents}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Papas, Irene}}

Category:1929 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:20th-century Greek actresses

Category:21st-century Greek actresses

Category:Commanders of the Order of Alfonso X, the Wise

Category:Commanders of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece)

Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease

Category:Deaths from dementia in Greece

Category:Greek communists

Category:Greek expatriates in Italy

Category:Greek film actresses

Category:People from Tenea