Minotis, Alexis

Born in 1900, in Khania (Canea), Crete. Greek actor and director.

In 1925, Minotis joined the acting company of his teacher, M. Kotopouli. From 1932 he acted in the National Theater in Athens. His roles include Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice and the title role in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Boris Godunov in A. K. Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan the Terrible, and Oswald in Ibsen’s Ghosts.

In 1942, during the Nazi occupation, Minotis went to the United States, returning to Greece in 1950. In 1951 he made his debut as director with Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, in which he played the title role. Since 1955, Minotis has been both acting and directing at the National Theater, where he produced Sophocles’ Antigone, Euripides’ Medea and the Bacchae, and Shakespeare’s King Lear (1957) and Richard III (1960). He has also directed modern plays, including Durrenmatt’s The Visit (1961), Melas’ Regas Velestinlis (1962), and operas.