Group	GreeksΈλληνες
Population	at least. 14 - 17 million
Region1
Pop1	10,280,000 (2001 census)
Ref1
Region2
Pop2	1,390,439-3,000,000 (2009 est.)
Ref2
Region3
Pop3	792,604 (July 2008 Est.)
Ref3
Region4
Pop4	400,000 (estimate)
Ref4	}}

|region5 = |pop5 = 365,120 (2006 census)-700,000 |ref5 = }} |region6 = |pop6 = 294,891 (2007 est.) |ref6 = }} |region7 = |pop7 = 242,685 (2006 census) |ref7 = }} |region8 = |pop8 = approx. 200,000 |ref8 = |pop9 = 100,000 |region9 = |ref9 = |region10 = |pop10 = 91,500 (2001 census) |ref10 = }} |region11 = |pop11 = 90,000 (estimate) |ref11 = }} |region12 = |pop12 = 55,000 (2008 estimate) |ref12 = }} |region13 = |pop13 = 50,000 |ref13 = }} |region14 = |pop14 = 35,000(2009 est.) |ref14 = |region15 = |pop15 = 30,000 (2008 estimate) |ref15 = }} |region16 = |pop16 = 15,742 (2007) |ref16 = }} |region17 = |pop17 = 12,000–15,000 |ref17 = }} |region18 = |pop18 = 13,000 (est) |ref18 = }} |region19 = |pop19 = 11,000 estimated |ref19 = }} |region20 = |pop20 = 9,500 estimate |ref20 = }} |region21 = |pop21 = 6,500 2002 census |ref21 = }} |region22 = |pop22 = 9,000 |ref22 = |region23 = |pop23 = 2,500 |ref23 = |region24 = |pop24 = 1,500 |ref24 = |region25 = |pop25 = 1,500 |ref25 = |religions = Greek Orthodox Christianity, irreligion, other |languages = Greek |footnotes = Higher figure includes those of ancestral descent. Those whose stated ethnic origins included "Greek" among others. The number of those whose stated ethnic origin is ''solely'' "Greek" is 145,250. An additional 3,395 Cypriots of undeclared ethnicity live in Canada.Approx. 60,000 Griko people and 30,000 post WW2 migrants. "Including descendants". }}

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes (, ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world.

Greek colonies and communities have been historically established in most corners of the Mediterranean, but Greeks have always been centered around the Aegean Sea, where the Greek language has been spoken since antiquity. Until the early 20th century, Greeks were uniformly distributed between the Greek peninsula, the western coast of Asia Minor, Pontus, Egypt, Cyprus and Constantinople; many of these regions coincided to a large extent with the borders of the Byzantine Empire of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of the ancient Greek colonization.

In the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), a large-scale population exchange between Greece and Turkey transferred and confined Christians from Turkey, except Constantinople (effectively ethnic Greeks) into the borders of the modern Greek state and Cyprus. Other ethnic Greek populations can be found from southern Italy to the Caucasus and in diaspora communities in a number of other countries. Today, most Greeks are officially registered as members of the Greek Orthodox Church.

History

The Greeks speak the Greek language, which forms its own unique branch within the Indo-European family of languages, the Hellenic language. They are part of a group of pre-modern ethnicities, described by Anthony D. Smith as an "archetypal diaspora people".

The modern Greek state was created in 1832, when the Greeks liberated a part of their historic homelands from the Ottoman Empire. The large Greek diaspora and merchant class were instrumental in transmitting the ideas of western romantic nationalism and philhellenism, which together with the conception of Hellenism, formulated during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire, formed the basis of the Diafotismos and the current conception of Hellenism.

Origins

The Proto-Greeks probably arrived at the area now called Greece, in the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The sequence of migrations into the Greek mainland during the 2nd millennium BC has to be reconstructed on the basis of the ancient Greek dialects, as they presented themselves centuries later and is subject to some uncertainties. There were at least two migrations, the first of the Ionians and Aeolians which resulted in Mycenaean Greece by the 16th century BC, and the second, the Dorian invasion, around the 11th century BC, displacing the Arcadocypriot dialects which descended from the Mycenaean period. Both migrations occur at incisive periods, the Mycenaean at the transition to the Late Bronze Age and the Doric at the Bronze Age collapse.

There were some suggestions of three waves of migration indicating a Proto-Ionian one, either contemporary or even earlier than the Mycenaean. This possibility appears to have been first suggested by Ernst Curtius in the 1880s. In current scholarship, the standard assumption is to group the Ionic together with the Arcadocypriot group as the successors of a single Middle Bronze Age migration in dual opposition to the "western" group of Doric.

Mycenaean

The Mycenaeans were ultimately the first Greek-speaking people attested through historical sources, written records in the Linear B script, and through their literary echoes in the works of Homer, a few centuries later.

The Mycenaeans quickly penetrated the Aegean Sea and by the 15th century BC had reached Rhodes, Crete, Cyprus, where Teucer is said to have founded the first colony, and the shores of Asia Minor. Around 1200 BC the Dorians, another Greek-speaking people, followed from Epirus. Traditionally, historians have believed that the Dorian invasion caused the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization, but it is likely the main attack was made by seafaring raiders (sea peoples) who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean around 1180 BC. The Dorian invasion was followed by a poorly attested period of migrations, appropriately called the Greek Dark Ages, but by 800 BC the landscape of Archaic and Classical Greece was discernible.

In the Homeric epics, the Greeks of prehistory are viewed as the ancestors of the early classical civilization of Homer's own time, while the Mycenaean pantheon included many of the divinities (e.g. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades) attested in later Greek religion.

Classical

The classical period of Greek civilization covers a time spanning from the early 5th century BC to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 BC (some authors prefer to split this period into 'Classical', from the end of the Persian wars to the end of the Peloponnesian War, and 'Fourth Century', up to the death of Alexander). It is so named because it set the standards by which Greek civilization would be judged in later eras. The ethnogenesis of the Greek nation is marked, according to some scholars, by the first Olympic Games in 776 BC, when the idea of a common Hellenism among the Greek-speaking tribes was first translated into a shared cultural experience and Hellenism was primarily a matter of common culture.

While the Greeks of the classical era understood themselves to belong to a common Greek genos their first loyalty was to their city and they saw nothing incongruous about warring, often brutally, with other Greek city-states. The Peloponnesian War, the large scale Greek civil war between Athens and Sparta and their allies, is a case in point.

Most of the feuding Greek city-states were, in some scholars' opinions, united under the banner of Philip's and Alexander the Great's pan-Hellenic ideals, though others might generally opt, rather, for an explanation of "Macedonian conquest for the sake of conquest" or at least conquest for the sake of riches, glory and power and view the "ideal" as useful propaganda directed towards the city-states.

In any case, Alexander's toppling of the Achaemenid Empire, after his victories at the battles of the Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela, and advance as far as modern-day Pakistan and Tajikistan, provided an important outlet for Greek culture, via the creation of colonies and trade routes along the way. While the Alexandrian empire did not survive its creator's death intact, the cultural implications of the spread of Hellenism across much of the Middle East and Asia were to prove long lived as Greek became the ''lingua franca'', a position it retained even in Roman times. Many Greeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch, Seleucia and many other new Hellenistic cities founded in Alexander's wake. Two thousand years later, there are still communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan, like the Kalash, who claim to be descended from Greek settlers.

Hellenistic

The Hellenistic civilization was the next period of Greek civilization, the beginnings of which are usually placed at Alexander's death. This Hellenistic age, so called because it saw the partial Hellenization of many non-Greek cultures, lasted until the conquest of Egypt by Rome in 30 BC.

This age saw the Greeks move towards larger cities and a reduction in the importance of the city-state. These larger cities were parts of the still larger Kingdoms of the Diadochi. Greeks, however, remained aware of their past, chiefly through the study of the works of Homer and the classical authors. An important factor in maintaining Greek identity was contact with ''barbarian'' (non-Greek) peoples which was deepened in the new cosmopolitan environment of the multi-ethnic Hellenistic kingdoms. This led to a strong desire among Greeks to organize the transmission of the Hellenic ''paideia'' to the next generation.

In the religious sphere, this was a period of profound change. The spiritual revolution that took place saw a waning of the old Greek religion, whose decline beginning in the 3rd century BC continued with the introduction of new religious movements from the East. The cults of deities like Isis and Mithra were introduced into the Greek world.

In the Indo-Greek and Greco-Bactrian kingdoms, Greco-Buddhism was spreading and Greek missionaries would play an important role in propagating it to China. Further east, the Greeks of Alexandria Eschate became known to the Chinese people as the Dayuan.

Byzantine

Of the new eastern religions introduced into the Greek world the most successful was Christianity. While ethnic distinctions still existed in the Roman Empire, they became secondary to religious considerations and the renewed empire used Christianity as a tool to support its cohesion and promoted a robust Roman national identity. Concurrently the secular, urban civilization of late antiquity survived in the Eastern Mediterranean along with Greco-Roman educational system, although it was from Christianity that the culture's essential values were drawn.

The Eastern Roman Empire – today conventionally named the ''Byzantine Empire'', a name not in use during its own time – became increasingly influenced by Greek culture after the 7th century, when Emperor Heraclius (AD 575 - 641) decided to make Greek the empire's official language. Certainly from then on, but likely earlier, the Roman and Greek cultures were virtually fused into a single Greco-Roman world. Although the Latin West recognized the Eastern Empire's claim to the Roman legacy for several centuries, after Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne, king of the Franks, as the "Roman Emperor" on December 25, 800, an act which eventually led to the formation of the Holy Roman Empire, the Latin West started to favour the Franks and began to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire largely as the ''Empire of the Greeks'' (''Imperium Graecorum''). Greek-speakers at the time, however, referred to themselves as ''Romaioi'' ("Romans").

These Byzantine Greeks were largely responsible for the preservation of the literature of the classical era. Byzantine grammarians were those principally responsible for carrying, in person and in writing, ancient Greek grammatical and literary studies to the West during the 15th century, giving the Italian Renaissance a major boost. The Aristotelian philosophical tradition was nearly unbroken in the Greek world for almost two thousand years, until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.

To the Slavic world, Roman era Greeks contributed by the dissemination of literacy and Christianity. The most notable example of the later was the work of the two Greek brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius from Thessaloniki, who are credited today with formalizing the first Slavic alphabet.

A distinct Greek political identity re-emerged in the 11th century in educated circles and became more forceful after the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, so that when the empire was revived in 1261, it became in many ways a Greek national state. That new notion of nationhood engendered a deep interest in the classical past culminating in the ideas of the Neoplatonist philosopher Gemistus Pletho, who abandoned Christianity. However, it was the combination of Orthodox Christianity with a specifically Greek identity that shaped the Greeks' notion of themselves in the empire's twilight years.

Ottoman

Following the Fall of Constantinople on May 29, 1453, many Greeks sought better employment and education opportunities by leaving for the West, particularly Italy, Central Europe, Germany and Russia.

For those that remained under the Ottoman Empire's millet system, religion was the defining characteristic of national groups (''milletler''), so the exonym "Greeks" (''Rumlar'' from the name Rhomaioi) was applied by the Ottomans to all members of the Orthodox Church, regardless of their language or ethnic origin. The Greek speakers were the only ethnic group to actually call themselves ''Romioi'', (as opposed to being so named by others) and, at least those educated, considered their ethnicity (''genos'') to be Hellenic.

The roots of Greek success in the Ottoman Empire can be traced to the Greek tradition of education and commerce. It was the wealth of the extensive merchant class that provided the material basis for the intellectual revival that was the prominent feature of Greek life in the half century and more leading to the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821. Not coincidentally, on the eve of 1821, the three most important centres of Greek learning were situated in Chios, Smyrna and Aivali, all three major centres of Greek commerce.

Modern

The relationship between ethnic Greek identity and Greek Orthodox religion continued after the creation of the Modern Greek state in 1830. According to the second article of the first Greek constitution of 1822, a Greek was defined as any Christian resident of the Kingdom of Greece, a clause removed by 1840. A century later, when the Treaty of Lausanne was signed between Greece and Turkey in 1923, the two countries agreed to use religion as the determinant for ethnic identity for the purposes of population exchange, although most of the Greeks displaced (over a million of the total 1.5 million) had already been driven out by the time the agreement was signed. The Greek genocide, contemporaneous with the failed Greek Asia Minor Campaign, was part of this process of turkification of the Ottoman Empire and the placement of its economy and trade, then largely in Greek hands under ethnic Turkish control.

While most Greeks today are descended from Greek-speaking Romioi (Roman) there are sizeable groups of ethnic Greeks who trace their descent to Aromanian-speaking Vlachs and Albanian-speaking Arvanites as well as Slavophones and Turkish-speaking Karamanlides. Today, Greeks are to be found all around the world.

Identity

The terms used to define Greekness have varied throughout history but were never limited or completely identified with membership to a Greek state. By Western standards, the term ''Greeks'' has traditionally referred to any native speakers of the Greek language, whether Mycenaean, Byzantine or modern Greek. Byzantine Greeks called themselves ''Romioi'' and considered themselves the political heirs of Rome, but at least by the 12th century a growing number of those educated, deemed themselves the heirs of ancient Greece as well, although for most of the Greek speakers, "Hellene" still meant pagan. On the eve of the Fall of Constantinople the Last Emperor urged his soldiers to remember that they were the descendants of Greeks and Romans.

Before the establishment of the Modern Greek state, the link between ancient and modern Greeks was emphasized by the scholars of Greek Enlightenment especially by Rigas Feraios. In his "Political Constitution", he addresses to the nation as "the people descendant of the Greeks".

The Greeks today are a nation in the meaning of an ''ethnos'', defined by possessing Greek culture and having a Greek mother tongue, not by citizenship, race, and religion or by being subjects of any particular state. In ancient and medieval times and to a lesser extent today the Greek term was ''genos'', which also indicates a common ancestry.

Names

Throughout the centuries, Greeks and Greek speakers have been known by a number of names, including: Hellenes – Homer is referring originally to Hellenes as a relatively small tribe settled in Thessalic Phthia, with its warriors under the command of Achilleus. In the Parian Chronicle is mentioned that Phthia was the homeland of Hellenes and that this name was given to those previously called Greeks (). In Greek mythology, Hellen, the patriarch of Hellenes, was son of Deucalion, who ruled around Phthia and Pyrrha, the only survivors after the great deluge. It seems that the myth was invented when the Greek tribes started to separate from each other in certain areas of Greece and it indicates their common origin.Aristotle names Ancient Hellas an area in Epirus between Dodona and the Achelous river, the location of the great deluge of Deucalion, a land occupied by the Selloi and the "Greeks" who later came to be known as "Hellenes". Selloi were the priests of Dodonian Zeus and the word probably means "sacrificers" (to Goth. ''saljan'': present,sacrifice ).There is currently no satisfactory etymology of the name ''Hellenes''. Some scholars assert that the name Selloi changed to Sellanes (as Akarnanes) and then to Hellanes-Hellenes. However this etymology connects the name ''Hellenes'' with the Dorians who occupied Epirus and the relation with the name ''Greeks'' given by the Romans becomes uncertain.The name ''Hellenes'' seems to be older and it was probably used by the Greeks with the establishment of the Great Amphictyonic League.This was an ancient asocciation of Greek tribes with twelve founders which was organized to protect the great temples of Apollo in Delphi (Phocis) and of Demeter near Thermopylae(Locris). According to the legend it was founded after the Troyan war,by the eponymous Amphictyon,brother of Hellen.

Greeks (Γραικοί) –Hesiod is referring to Graecus the son of Pandora,sister of Hellen the patriarch of Hellenes. Hellen was the son of Deucalion who ruled around Phthia in central Greece.The Parian Chronicle mentions that when Deucalion became king of Phthia,the previously called Graekhes were named Hellenes. Aristotle notes that the Hellenes were related with Grai/Greeks (''Meteorologica'' I.xiv) a native name of a Dorian tribe in Epirus which was used by the Illyrians.He also claims that the great deluge must have occurred in the region around Dodona,where the Selloi dwelt.However according to the Greek tradition it is more possible that the homeland of the Greeks was originally in central Greece. A modern theory derives the name Greek (Lt. Graeci) from Graecos inhabitant of Graia -or Graea-(Γραία), a town on the coast of Boeotia. Greek colonists from Graia helped to found Cumae (900 BC) in Italy,where they were called Graeces.When the Romans encountered them they used this name for the colonists and then for all Greeks.(Graeci) In Greek, ''graia'' (γραία) means "old woman" and is derived from the PIE root ''*gere'': "to grow old" in Proto-Greek ''guraj'', "old age" and later "gift of honour" (Mycenean:"kera, geras"), and ''grau-j'', "old lady". The Germanic languages borrowed the word ''Greeks'' with an initial "k" sound which probably was their initial sound closest to the Latin "g" at the time (Goth. ''Kreks''). The area out of ancient Attica including Boeotia was called Graiki and is connected with the older deluge of Ogyges the mythological ruler of Boeotia. The region was originally occupied by the Minyans who were autochthonous or Proto-Greek speaking people. In ancient Greek the name ''Ogygios'' came to mean "from earliest days".

Achaeans (Αχαιοί) – Homer uses the terms ''Achaeans'' and ''Danaans'' as a generic term for Greeks in ''Iliad'', and they were probably a part of the Mycenean civilization. The names ''Achaioi'' and ''Danaoi'' seem to be pre-Dorian belonging to the people who were overthrown. They were forced to the region that later bore the name Achaea after the Dorian invasion. In the 5th century BC they were redefined as contemporary speakers of Aeolic Greek which was spoken mainly in Thessaly, Boetia and Lesbos. There are many controversial theories on the origin of the Achaeans. According to one view, the Achaeans were one of the fair-headed tribes of upper Europe, who pressed down over the Alps during the early Iron age (1300 BC) to southern Europe. Another theory suggests that the Peloponnesian Dorians were the Achaeans. These theories are rejected by other scholars who, based on linguistic criteria, suggest that the Achaeans were mainland pre-Dorian Greeks. There is also the theory that there was an Achaean ethnos that migrated from Asia minor to lower Thessaly prior to 2000 BC. Some Hittite texts mention a nation lying to the west called ''Ahhiyava'' or ''Ahhiya''. Egyptian documents are referring to Ekwesh, one of the groups of sea peoples who attached Egypt during the reign of Merneptah (1213-1203 BCE), who may have been Achaeans.

Danaans or ''Danaoi'' (Δαναοί) and Argives (Αργείοι). In Homer's Iliad, the names ''Danaans'' and ''Argives'' are used to designate the Greek forces opposed to the Trojans. The myth of Danaus, whose origin is Egypt, is a foundation legend of Argos. His daughters ''Danaides'', were forced in Tartarus to carry a jug to fill a bathtub without a bottom. This myth is connected with a task that can never be never be fullfilled (Sisyphos) and the name can be derived from the PIE root ''*danu'': "river". There is not any satisfactory theory on their origin. Some scholars connect Danaans with the Denyen, one of the groups of the sea peoples who attacked Egypt during the reign of Ramesses III (1187-1156 BCE). The same inscription mentions the Weshesh who might have been the Achaeans. The Denyen seem to have been inhabitants of the city Adana in Cilicia. Pottery similar to that of Mycenae itself has been found in Tarsus of Cilicia and it seems that some refugees from the Aegean went there after the collapse of the Mycenean civilization. These Cilicians seem to have been called Dananiyim,the same word as Danaoi who attacked Egypt in 1191 BC along with the Quaouash (or Weshesh) who may be Achaeans. They were also called ''Danuna'' according to a Hittite inscription and the same name is mentioned in the Amarna letters.Julius Pokorny reconstructs the name from the PIE root ''da:-'': "flow, river", ''da:-nu'': "any moving liquid, drops", ''da: navo'' "people living by the river, Skyth. nomadic people (in Rigveda water-demons, fem.Da:nu primordial goddess), in Greek ''Danaoi'', Egypt. ''Danuna''". It is also possible that the name ''Danaans'' is pre-Greek. A country ''Danaja'' with a city Mukana (propaply: Mycenea) is mentioned in inscriptions from Egypt from Amenophis III (1390-1352 BC), Thutmosis III (1437 BC).

Romioi, Rûm (traditionally for the Byzantine Greeks)

Yona or Yavana (transliterations of the Greek word for "Ionians")

Javan or Yavan (in Hebrew)

Modern and Ancient

The most obvious link between modern and ancient Greeks is their language, which has a documented tradition from at least the 14th century BC to the present day, albeit with a break during the Greek Dark Ages. Scholars compare its continuity of tradition to Chinese alone. Since its inception, Hellenism was primarily a matter of common culture and the national continuity of the Greek world is a lot more certain than its demographic. Yet, Hellenism also embodied an ancestral dimension through aspects of Athenian literature that developed and influenced ideas of descent based on autochthony. During the later years of the Eastern Roman Empire, areas such as Ionia and Constantinople experienced a Hellenic revival in language, philosophy, and literature and on classical models of thought and scholarship. This revival provided a powerful impetus to the sense of cultural affinity with ancient Greece and its classical heritage. The cultural changes undergone by the Greeks are, despite a surviving common sense of ethnicity, undeniable. At the same time, the Greeks have retained their language and alphabet, certain values, customs, a sense of religious and cultural difference and exclusion, (the word ''barbarian'' was used by 12th century historian Anna Komnene to describe non-Greek speakers), a sense of Greek identity and common sense of ethnicity despite the global political and social changes of the past two millennia.

Demographics

Today, Greeks are the majority ethnic group in the Hellenic Republic, where they constitute 93% of the country's population, and the Republic of Cyprus where they make up 78% of the island's population (excluding Turkish settlers in the occupied part of the country). Greek populations have not traditionally exhibited high rates of growth; nonetheless, the population of Greece has shown regular increase since the country's first census in 1828. A large percentage of the population growth since the state's foundation has resulted from annexation of new territories and the influx of 1.5 million Greek refugees after the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey. About 80% of the population of Greece is urban, with 28% concentrated in the city of Athens

Greeks from Cyprus have a similar history of emigration, usually to the English-speaking world because of the island's colonization by the British Empire. Waves of emigration followed the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, while the population decreased between mid-1974 and 1977 as a result of emigration, war losses, and a temporary decline in fertility. After the ethnic cleansing of a third of the Greek population of the island in 1974, there was also an increase in the number of Greek Cypriots leaving, especially for the Middle East, which contributed to a decrease in population that tapered off in the 1990s. Today more than two-thirds of the Greek population in Cyprus is urban.

There is a sizeable Greek minority of about 105,000 people, in Albania. The Greek minority of Turkey, which numbered upwards of 200,000 people after the 1923 exchange, has now dwindled to a few thousand, after the 1955 Constantinople Pogrom and other state sponsored violence and discrimination. This effectively ended, though not entirely, the three thousand year old presence of Hellenism in Asia Minor. There are smaller Greek minorities in the rest of the Balkan countries, the Levant and the Black Sea states, remnants of the Old Greek Diaspora (pre-19th century).

Diaspora

The total number of Greeks living outside Greece and Cyprus today is a contentious issue. Where Census figures are available, they show around 3 million Greeks outside Greece and Cyprus. Estimates provided by the SAE - World Council of Hellenes Abroad put the figure at around 7 million worldwide. According to George Prevelakis of Sorbonne University, the number is closer to just below 5 million. Integration, intermarriage, and loss of the Greek language influence the self-identification of the Omogeneia. Important centres of the New Greek Diaspora today are London, New York, Melbourne and Toronto. Recently, the Hellenic Parliament passed a law that enables Diaspora Greeks to vote in the elections of the Greek state.

Ancient

In ancient times, the trading and colonizing activities of the Greek tribes and city states spread the Greek culture, religion and language around the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins, especially in Sicily and southern Italy (also known as Magna Grecia, Spain, the south of France and the Black sea coasts. Under Alexander the Great's empire and successor states, Greek and Hellenizing ruling classes were established in the Middle East, India and in Egypt. The Hellenistic period is characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization that established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa. Under the Roman Empire, easier movement of people spread Greeks across the Empire and in the eastern territories, Greek became the lingua franca rather than Latin. The modern-day Griko community of southern Italy, numbering about 60,000, Greek merchant families already had contacts in other countries and during the disturbances many set up home around the Mediterranean (notably Marseilles in France, Livorno in Italy, Alexandria in Egypt), Russia (Odessa and Saint Petersburg), and Britain (London and Liverpool) from where they traded, typically in textiles and grain. Businesses frequently comprised the extended family, and with them they brought schools teaching Greek and the Greek Orthodox Church.

As markets changed and they became more established, some families grew their operations to become shippers, financed through the local Greek community, notably with the aid of the Ralli or Vagliano Brothers. With economic success, the Diaspora expanded further across the Levant, North Africa, India and the USA.

In the 20th century, many Greeks left their traditional homelands for economic reasons resulting in large migrations from Greece and Cyprus to the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, Germany, and South Africa, especially after the Second World War (1939–45), the Greek Civil War (1946–49), and the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

Culture

Greek culture has evolved over thousands of years, with its beginning in the Mycenaean civilization, continuing through the Classical period, the Roman and Eastern Roman periods and was profoundly affected by Christianity, which it in turn influenced and shaped. Ottoman Greeks had to endure through several centuries of adversity that culminated in genocide in the 20th century but nevertheless included cultural exchanges and enriched both cultures. The Diafotismos is credited with revitalizing Greek culture and giving birth to the synthesis of ancient and medieval elements that characterize it today.

Language

Most Greeks speak the Greek language, an Indo-European language that forms a branch itself, with its closest relations being Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian) and the Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan). It has one of the longest documented histories of any language and Greek literature has a continuous history of over 2,500 years. Several notable literary works, including the Homeric epics, Euclid's Elements and the New Testament, were originally written in Greek.

Greek demonstrates several linguistic features that are shared with other Balkan languages, such as Albanian, Bulgarian and Eastern Romance languages (see Balkan sprachbund), and has absorbed many foreign words, primarily of Western European and Turkish origin. Because of the movements of Philhellenism and the Diafotismos in the 19th century, which emphasized the modern Greeks' ancient heritage, these foreign influences were excluded from official use via the creation of Katharevousa, a somewhat artificial form of Greek purged of all foreign influence and words, as the official language of the Greek state. In 1976, however, the Hellenic Parliament voted to make the spoken Dimotiki the official language, making Katharevousa obsolete.

Modern Greek has, in addition to Standard Modern Greek or Dimotiki, a wide variety of dialects of varying levels of mutual intelligibility, including Cypriot, Pontic, Cappadocian, Griko and Tsakonian (the only surviving representative of ancient Doric Greek). Yevanic is the language of the Romaniotes, and survives in small communities in Greece, New York and Israel. In addition to Greek, many Greeks in Greece and the Diaspora are bilingual in other languages or dialects such as English, Arvanitika, Aromanian, Macedonian Slavic, Russian and Turkish.

Religion

Most Greeks are Christians, belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church. During the first centuries after Jesus Christ, the New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek, which remains the liturgical language of the Greek Orthodox Church, and most of the early Christians and Church Fathers were Greek-speaking. While the Orthodox Church was always intensely hostile to the ancient Greek religion, it did help Greeks keep their sense of identity during the Ottoman rule through its use of Greek in the liturgy and its modest educational efforts. There are small groups of ethnic Greeks adhering to other Christian denominations like Greek Catholics, Greek Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and groups adhering to other religions including Romaniot and Sephardic Jews and Greek Muslims. In particular, there are Greek Muslim communities in Tripoli, Lebanon, (7,000 strong) and Al Hamidiyah in Syria, while there is a large community of indeterminate size in the Pontus region, who were spared of the population exchange because of their faith. About 2,000 Greeks are members of Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism congregations.

Art

Greek art has a long and varied history. Greeks have contributed to the visual, literary and performing arts. In the West, ancient Greek art was influential in shaping the Roman and later the modern Western artistic heritage. Following the Renaissance in Europe, the humanist aesthetic and the high technical standards of Greek art inspired generations of European artists. Well into the 19th century, the classical tradition derived from Greece played an important role in the art of the Western World. In the East, Alexander the Great's conquests initiated several centuries of exchange between Greek, Central Asian and Indian cultures, resulting in Greco-Buddhist art, whose influence reached as far as Japan.

Byzantine Greek art, which grew from classical art and adapted the pagan motifs in the service of Christianity, provided a stimulus to the art of many nations. Its influences can be traced from Venice in the West to Kazakhstan in the East. In turn, Greek art was influenced by eastern civilizations in classical antiquity and the new religion of Orthodox Christianity during Roman times, while modern Greek art is heavily influenced by Western art.

Notable Greek artists include Renaissance painter El Greco, soprano Maria Callas, one of the best-selling singers worldwide Nana Mouskouri, and composers Iannis Xenakis, Yanni and Vangelis. Greek Alexandrian Constantine P. Cavafy and Nobel laureates Giorgos Seferis and Odysseas Elytis are among the most important poets of the 20th century. Modern Greek actresses of international notability are Melina Mercouri, Irene Papas and Academy Award winner Katina Paxinou.

Science

The Greeks of the Classical era made several notable contributions to science and helped lay the foundations of several western scientific traditions, like philosophy, historiography and mathematics. The scholarly tradition of the Greek academies was maintained during Roman times with several academic institutions in Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria and other centres of Greek learning while Eastern Roman science was essentially a continuation of classical science. Greeks have a long tradition of valuing and investing in ''paideia'' (education). ''Paideia'' was one of the highest societal values in the Greek and Hellenistic world while the first European institution described as a university was founded in 5th century Constantinople and operated in various incarnations until the city's fall to the Ottomans in 1453. The University of Constantinople was Christian Europe's first secular institution of higher learning since no theological subjects were taught, and considering the original meaning of the world university as a corporation of students, the world’s first university as well.

As of 2007, Greece had the eighth highest percentage of tertiary enrollment in the world (with the percentages for female students being higher than for male) while Greeks of the Diaspora are equally active in the field of education. Hundreds of thousands of Greek students attend Western universities every year while the faculty lists of leading Western universities contain a striking number of Greek names. Notable Greek scientists of modern times include Georgios Papanikolaou (inventor of the Pap test), Nicholas Negroponte, Constantin Carathéodory, Michael Dertouzos, John Argyris and Dimitri Nanopoulos.

Symbols

The most widely used symbol is the flag of Greece, which features nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white representing the nine syllables of the Greek national motto ''Eleftheria i thanatos'' (freedom or death), which was the motto of the Greek War of Independence. The blue square in the upper hoist-side corner bears a white cross, which represents Greek Orthodoxy. The Greek flag is widely used by the Greek Cypriots, although Cyprus has officially adopted a neutral flag to ease ethnic tensions with the Turkish Cypriot minority – see flag of Cyprus).

The pre-1978 (and first) flag of Greece, which features a Greek cross (''crux immissa quadrata'') on a blue background, is widely used as an alternative to the official flag, and they are often flown together. The national emblem of Greece features a blue escutcheon with a white cross surrounded by two laurel branches. A common design involves the current flag of Greece and the pre-1978 flag of Greece with crossed flagpoles and the national emblem placed in front.

Another highly recognizable and popular Greek symbol is the double-headed eagle, the imperial emblem of the last dynasty of the Roman Empire and a common symbol in Asia Minor and, later, Eastern Europe. It is not part of the modern Greek flag or coat of arms, although it is officially the insignia of the Greek Army and the flag of the Church of Greece. It had been incorporated in the Greek coat of arms between 1925 and 1926.

Surnames

The Greeks were one of the first people in Europe to use surnames and these were widely in use by the 9th century supplanting the ancient tradition of using the father’s name, however Greek surnames are most commonly patronymics. Commonly, Greek male surnames end in -s, which is the common ending for Greek masculine proper nouns in the nominative case. Exceptionally, some end in -ou, indicating the genitive case of this proper noun for patronymic reasons. Although surnames in mainland Greece are static today, dynamic and changing patronymic usage survives in middle names where the genitive of father's first name is commonly the middle name (this usage having been passed onto the Russians). In Cyprus, by contrast, surnames follow the ancient tradition of being given according to the father’s name. Finally, in addition to Greek-derived surnames many have Latin, Turkish and Italian origin.

With respect to personal names, the two main influences are early Christianity and antiquity. The ancient names were never forgotten but have become more widely bestowed from the 18th century onwards.

Sea

The traditional Greek homelands have been the Greek peninsula and the Aegean, the Black Sea and Ionian coasts of Asia Minor, the islands of Cyprus and Sicily and the south of the Italian peninsula. In Plato's ''Phaidon'', Socrates remarks, "we (Greeks) live like ants or frogs around a pond". This image is attested by the map of the Old Greek Diaspora, which corresponded to the Greek world until the creation of the Greek state in 1832. The sea and trade were natural outlets for Greeks since the Greek peninsula is rocky and does not offer good prospects for agriculture.

Notable Greek seafarers include people such as Pytheas of Marseilles, Scylax of Caryanda who sailed to Iberia and beyond, Nearchus, the 6th century merchant and later monk Cosmas Indicopleustes (''Cosmas who sailed to India'') and the explorer of the Northwestern passage Juan de Fuca. In later times, the Romioi plied the sea-lanes of the Mediterranean and controlled trade until an embargo imposed by the Roman Emperor on trade with the Caliphate opened the door for the later Italian pre-eminence in trade.

The Greek shipping tradition recovered during Ottoman rule when a substantial merchant middle class developed, which played an important part in the Greek War of Independence. Today, Greek shipping continues to prosper to the extent that Greece has the largest merchant fleet in the world, while many more ships under Greek ownership fly flags of convenience. The most notable shipping magnate of the 20th century was Aristotle Onassis, others being Yiannis Latsis, George Livanos, and Stavros Niarchos. A famous Greek poet of the 20th century was the Chinese-born seaman Nikos Kavvadias.

Timeline

The history of the Greek people is closely associated with the history of Greece, Cyprus, Constantinople, Asia Minor and the Black Sea. During the Ottoman rule of Greece, a number of Greek enclaves around the Mediterranean were cut off from the core, notably in Southern Italy, the Caucasus, Syria and Egypt. By the early 20th century, over half of the overall Greek-speaking population was settled in Asia Minor (now Turkey), while later that century a huge wave of migration to the United States, Australia, Canada and elsewhere created the modern Greek diaspora.

''Some key historical events have also been included for context, but ''this timeline is not intended to cover history not related to migrations''. There is more information on the historical context of these migrations in History of Greece.''

|- | 1919|| Treaty of Neuilly; Greece and Bulgaria exchange populations, with some exceptions. |- | 1922|| The Destruction of Smyrna (modern-day Izmir) more than 40 thousand Greeks killed, End of significant Greek presence in Asia Minor. |- | 1923|| Treaty of Lausanne; Greece and Turkey agree to exchange populations with limited exceptions of the Greeks in Constantinople, Imbros, Tenedos and the Muslim minority of Western Thrace. 1.5 million of Asia Minor and Pontic Greeks settle in Greece, and some 450 thousands of Muslims settle in Turkey. |- | 1940s|| Hundred of thousands Greeks died from starvation during the Axis Occupation of Greece |- | 1947|| Communist regime in Romania begins evictions of the Greek community, approx. 75,000 migrate. |- | 1948|| Greek Civil War. Tens of thousands of Greek communists and their families flee into Eastern Bloc nations. Thousands settle in Tashkent. |- | 1950s|| Massive emigration of Greeks to West Germany, the United States, Australia, Canada, and other countries. |- | 1955|| Istanbul Pogrom against Greeks. Exodus of Greeks from the city accelerates; less than 2,000 remain today. |- | 1958|| Large Greek community in Alexandria flees Nasser's regime in Egypt. |- |1960s || Republic of Cyprus created as an independent state under Greek, Turkish and British protection. Economic emigration continues. |- | 1974||Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Almost all Greeks living in Northern Cyprus flee to the south and the United Kingdom. |- | 1980s||Many civil war refugees were allowed to re-emigrate to Greece. Retro-migration of Greeks from Germany begins. |- | 1990s||Collapse of Soviet Union. Approx. 100,000 ethnic Greeks migrate from Georgia, Armenia, southern Russia, and Albania to Greece. |- | 2000s|| Some statistics show the beginning of a trend of reverse migration of Greeks from the United States and Australia. |}

See also

Antiochian Greeks

Epirotes

Karamanlides

Maniots

Sarakatsani

Slavophone Greeks

Souliotes

Tsakonians

Urums

List of Ancient Greeks

List of Greeks

List of Greek Americans

Greek Precinct, Melbourne

Notes

A variety of more theories has also been supported, but there is a general consensus that the coming of the Greek tribes occurred around 2100 BC.

Citations

References

Further reading

External links

Omogenia

World Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE), Umbrella Diaspora Organization

Religious

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria

Church of Greece

Academic

Transnational Communities Programme at the University of Oxford, includes papers on the Greek Diaspora

Greeks on Greekness: The Construction and Uses of the Greek Past among Greeks under the Roman Empire.

The Modern Greek Studies Association is a scholarly organization for modern Greek studies in North America, which publishes the Journal of Modern Greek Studies.

The Got Greek? Next Generation National Research Study is an academic study of young diaspora Greeks sponsored by The Next Generation Initiative

Waterloo Institute for Hellenistic Studies

Trade organizations

Hellenic Canadian Board of Trade

Hellenic Canadian Lawyers Association

Hellenic Canadian Congress of British Columbia

Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce

Hellenic-Argentine Chamber of Industry and Commerce (C.I.C.H.A.)

;Charitable organizations

AHEPA home page - American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association

Hellenic Heritage Foundation

Hellenic Home for the Aged

Hellenic Hope Center - supports people with disabilities

Hellenic Scholarships

Category:Greek people Category:Indo-European peoples Category:Ancient peoples Category:Ethnic groups in Europe

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name	Nana Mouskouri
background	solo_singer
birth name	Ιωάννα Μούσχουρη (Ioánna Moúschouri)
birth date	October 13, 1934
origin	Chania, Crete, Greece
genre	Jazz, Pop, folk, Greek folk, world music, Classical
occupation	Singer
years active	1958–2008
label	Fontana, Polydor, Mercury, Verve, Philips, PolyGram, Universal Music France
website	Universal Music France
notable instruments	}}

Nana Mouskouri (), born Ioánna Moúschouri () on October 13, 1934, in Chania, Crete, Greece, is a Greek singer who has sold nearly 400 million records worldwide in a career spanning over five decades, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She was known as Nána to her friends and family as a child. (Note that in Greek her surname is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable - MOOS-hoo-ree - rather than the second.) She has recorded songs in many languages, including Greek, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew, Welsh, Mandarin Chinese and Maori.

The early years

Nana Mouskouri's family lived in Chania, Crete, where her father, Constantine, worked as a film projectionist in a local cinema. Her mother, Alice also worked in the same local cinema as an usherette. When Mouskouri was three, her family moved to Athens.

Mouskouri's family sent her and her elder sister, Eugenia or "Jenny", to the Athens Conservatoire. Mouskouri had displayed exceptional musical talent from the age of six. Jenny initially appeared to be the more gifted of the two sisters. Financially unable to support both girls' studies, the parents asked their tutor which one should continue. The tutor conceded that Jenny had the better voice, but Nana was the one with the true inner need to sing. Mouskouri has said that a medical examination revealed a difference in her two vocal cords and this could well account for her remarkable singing voice (in her younger years ranging from a husky, dark alto, which she later dropped, to a ringing coloratura mezzo), as opposed to her breathy, raspy speaking voice.

Mouskouri's childhood was marked by the German Nazi occupation of Greece. Her father became part of the anti-Nazi resistance movement in Athens. Mouskouri began singing lessons at age 12. As a child, she listened to radio broadcasts of singers such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Édith Piaf.

In 1950, she was accepted at the Conservatoire. She studied classical music with an emphasis on singing opera. After eight years at the Conservatoire, Mouskouri was encouraged by her friends to experiment with jazz music. She began singing with her friends' jazz group at night. However, when Mouskouri's Conservatory professor found out about Mouskouri's involvement with a genre of music that was not in keeping with her classical studies, he prevented her from sitting for her end-of-year exams. Mouskouri left the Conservatoire and began performing at the Zaki club in Athens.

She began singing jazz in nightclubs with a bias towards Ella Fitzgerald repertoire. In 1957, she recorded her first song, ''Fascination'', in both Greek and English for Odeon/EMI Greece. By 1958 while still performing at the Zaki, she met Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis. Hadjidakis was impressed by Nana’s voice and offered to write songs for her. In 1959 Mouskouri performed Hadjidakis' ''Kapou Iparchi I Agapi Mou'' (co-written with poet Nikos Gatsos) at the inaugural Greek Song Festival. The song won first prize, and Mouskouri began to be noticed.

At the 1960 Greek Song Festival, she performed two more Hadjidakis compositions, ''Timoria'' and ''Kiparissaki''. Both these songs tied for first prize. Mouskouri performed Kostas Yannidis' composition, ''Xypna Agapi Mou'', at the Mediterranean Song Festival, held in Barcelona that year. The song won first prize, and she went on to sign a recording contract with Paris-based Philips-Fontana.

In 1961, Mouskouri performed the soundtrack of a German documentary about Greece. This resulted in the German-language single ''Weiße Rosen aus Athen'' ("White Roses from Athens"). The song was originally adapted from a folk melody by Hadjidakis. It became a success, selling over a million copies in Germany. The song was later translated into several languages and it went on to become one of Mouskouri's signature tunes.

Family life

Mouskouri has been married twice. When she was 25, she married her first husband, a guitarist in her backing band and the first man she'd kissed. They had two children (Nicolas Petsilas and Lenou Petsilas (singer)) but divorced when Mouskouri was 39. Not long after that, she met her second husband, André Chapelle, then her sound technician, but they did not marry then because she 'didn't want to bring another father into the family' and divorce was against her traditional Greek upbringing. They eventually married on 13 January 2003 and live primarily in Switzerland.

Life outside Greece

In 1962, she met Quincy Jones, who persuaded her to travel to New York City to record an album of American jazz titled ''The Girl From Greece Sings''. Following that she scored another hit in the United Kingdom with ''My Colouring Book''.

In 1963 she left Greece to live in Paris. Mouskouri performed Luxembourg's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 that year, ''À Force de Prier''. The song achieved success, and helped win her the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque in France. Mouskouri soon attracted the attention of French composer Michel Legrand, who composed for her two major French hits ''Les Parapluies de Cherbourg'' (1964) and an arrangement of Katherine K. Davis' ''Carol of the Drum'', ''L'Enfant au Tambour'' (1965).

In 1965 she recorded her second English-language album to be released in the United States, entitled ''Nana Sings''. American calypso musician Harry Belafonte heard and liked the album. Belafonte brought Mouskouri on tour with him through 1966. They teamed for a live duo album entitled ''An Evening With Belafonte/Mouskouri''. During this tour, Belafonte suggested that Mouskouri remove her signature black-rimmed glasses when on stage. She was so unhappy with the request that she wanted to quit the show after only two days. Finally, Belafonte relented and respected her wishes to perform while wearing glasses.

Mouskouri's 1967 French album ''Le Jour Où la Colombe'' raised her to super-stardom in France. This album featured many of her French songs, ''Au Cœur de Septembre'', ''Adieu Angélina'', ''Robe Bleue, Robe Blanche'' and the French pop classic ''Le Temps des Cerises''. Mouskouri made her first appearance at Paris' legendary Olympia concert theatre the same year, singing French pop, Greek folk, and Hadjidakis numbers.

In 1968, Mouskouri was invited to host a BBC TV series called ''Presenting Nana Mouskouri''. The next year she released a full-length British LP, ''Over and Over''. The LP spent almost two years in the UK charts. She expanded her concert tour to Australia (where she met Frank Hardy, who followed her to the south of France in 1976), New Zealand and Japan. She recorded several Japanese songs for the Japanese market.

In France, she released a series of top-selling albums that included ''Comme un Soleil'', ''Une Voix Qui Vient du Cœur'', ''Vieilles Chansons de France'', and ''Quand Tu Chantes!''.

Middle years

In 1979, Mouskouri released another English-language album named ''Roses and Sunshine''. This album consisting largely of folk and country material, and included work from sources as Neil Young, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan and John Denver. It was well received in Canada, and one of the album's tracks, "Even Now" (not the same song as the 1978 Barry Manilow hit), became a staple on beautiful music radio stations in the United States. She scored a worldwide hit in 1981 with ''Je Chante Avec Toi, Liberté'', which was translated into several languages after its success in France. The momentum from this album also helped boost her following German album, ''Meine Lieder sind mein Leben''. In 1984, Mouskouri returned to Greece for her first live performance in her homeland since 1962.

In 1985, Mouskouri recorded ''Only Love'', the theme song to the BBC TV series ''Mistral's Daughter'' — based upon the novel by Judith Krantz — that reached #2 in the UK charts. The song was also a hit in its foreign language versions: ''L'Amour en Héritage'' (French), ''Come un'eredità'' (Italian), ''La dicha del amor'' (Spanish), and ''Aber die Liebe bleibt'' (German). The German version was also recorded with an alternate set of lyrics under the title ''Der wilde Wein'' but was withdrawn in favour of ''Aber die Liebe bleibt''.

That same year, Mouskouri made a play for the Spanish-language market with the hit single ''Con Todo el Alma''. The song was a major success in Spain, Argentina and Chile.

She released five albums in different languages in 1987, and the following year returned to her classical conservatory roots with the double LP ''The Classical Nana'' (aka ''Nana Classique''), which featured adaptations of classical songs and excerpts from opera. By the end of 1987, she had performed a series of concerts in Asia, including South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.

Autobiography

A French language autobiography appeared in 1989 titled ''"Chanter ma vie"'' (Singing my life), which is also the title of her French version of ABBA's "I Have a Dream".

In 2006, Greek publisher A.A. Livanis published a biography in Greek titled "To onoma mou ine Nana" (My name is Nana). In autumn 2007, the French and English versions of this biography appeared under the titles "Nana Mouskouri — Memoires — La fille de la Chauve-souris" (XO publishers) and "Nana Mouskouri — Memoirs" (Orion Publishing Group).

The later years

Mouskouri's 1991 English album, ''Only Love: The Best of Nana Mouskouri'' became her best-selling release in the United States. She spent much of the 1990s touring the globe. Among her early 1990s albums were spiritual music, ''Gospel'' (1990), the Spanish-language ''Nuestras Canciones'', the multilingual, Mediterranean-themed ''Côté Sud, Côté Coeur'' (1992), ''Dix Mille Ans Encore'', ''Falling in Love Again: Great Songs From the Movies''. ''Falling in Love'' featured two duets with Harry Belafonte.

She recorded several more albums over 1996 and 1997, including the Spanish ''Nana Latina'' (which featured duets with Julio Iglesias and Mercedes Sosa), the English-language ''Return to Love'', and the French pop classics, ''Hommages''. In 1997, she staged a high-profile ''Concert for Peace'' at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. This concert was later released as an album, and aired as a TV special on PBS in the U.S.

In 1993, Mouskouri recorded the album, ''Hollywood''. Produced by Michel Legrand it was a collection of famous songs from films, and served not only as a tribute to the world of cinema, but also as a personal reference to childhood memories of sitting with her father in his projection room in Crete.

UNICEF/Politics

Mouskouri was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in October 1993. She took over from the previous ambassador, the recently deceased actress Audrey Hepburn. Mouskouri's first U.N. mission took her to Bosnia to draw attention to the plight of children affected by Bosnian war. She went on to give a series of fund-raising concerts in Sweden and Belgium.

She was elected a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 until 1999, when she resigned from her position as an MEP. Several reasons have been given for this, one being her pacifism, and another being that she felt ill-equipped for the day-to-day work of a politician.

21st century and retirement

Mouskouri lives in Switzerland with Chapelle, and, until her final performance in 2008, performed hundreds of concerts every year throughout her career. In 2004, her French record company released a 34-CD box set of more than 600 of Mouskouri's mostly-French songs. In 2006 she made a guest appearance at that year's Eurovision Song Contest which was held, for the first time ever, in her native Greece.

In the same year, she announced her plans to retire. From 2005 until 2008, she conducted a farewell concert tour of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, South America, the United States, and Canada. On July 23 and 24, 2008, Mouskouri gave her two final 'Farewell Concert' performances at the ancient Herodes Atticus Theatre, in Athens, Greece, before a packed stadium, including Greece's Prime Minister and Athens mayor, plus the mayors of Berlin, Paris and Luxembourg, along with fans from around the world and thousands of her Athenian admirers.

In 2010, in response to the financial situation in Greece caused by excessive deficit, Mouskouri announced that she would forgo her pension to contribute to the country's recovery. She commented: "Everywhere I see stories about my country going bankrupt. And people are aggressive about it. It's frightening. And it's painful for me. Nobody wants their country to be treated badly. It's frustrating and very sad."

Record sales

Universal Music Group, which has over the decades come to acquire virtually all the labels under which Mouskouri recorded, claims that Nana Mouskouri has sold nearly 400 million discs worldwide, recording about 1,500 songs in 15 languages on 450 albums. She has more than 230 gold and platinum albums worldwide, making her a candidate for the best-selling female recording artist of all time.

Impersonators

The British comedian Benny Hill impersonated Mouskouri on The Benny Hill Show. He wore long dresses and long black hair, that he stroked back, and talked and sang with a slow and quiet voice. He described the songs with long and verbose introductions before singing them.

Partial discography

''Epitaphios'' (1960)

''Nana Mouskouri Canta canciones populares griegas'' (1960)

''I megales epitichies tis Nana Mouskouri'' (1961)

''Ta prota mas tragoudia'' (1961)

''The White Rose of Athens'' (1961)

''Greece, Land of Dreams'' (1962)

''The Girl From Greece Sings'' (1962)

''Roses Blanches de Corfu'' (1962)

''Ce Soir A Luna Park'' (1962)

''Crois-Moi ça durera'' (1962)

''Un homme est venu'' (1963)

''Sings Greek Songs-Never On Sunday'' (1963)

''Celui Que j'aime'' (1964)

''The Voice of Greece'' (1964)

''Chante en Grec'' (1965)

''Nana Mouskouri et Michael Legrand'' (1965)

''Griechische Gitarren mit Nana Mouskouri'' (1965)

''Nana Mouskouri in Italia'' (1965)

''Nana's Choice'' (1965)

''Nana Sings'' (1965)

''An Evening with Belafonte/Mouskouri'' (1966)

''Le Cœur trop tendre'' (1966)

''Strasse der hunderttausend Lichter'' (1966)

''Nana Mouskouri in Paris'' (1966)

''Moje Najlepse grčke pesme -Yugoslavia-'' (1966)

''Pesme Moje zemlje -Yugoslavia-'' (1966)

''Un Canadien Errant'' (1967)

''Un souvenir du congres'' (1967)

''Nana Mouskouri à'lOlympia'' (1967)

''Showboat'' (1967)

''Chants de mon pays'' (1967)

''Singt Ihre Grossen Erfolge'' (1967)

''Le Jour où la Colombe'' (1967)

''Nana'' (1968)

''What now my love'' (1968)

''Une soirée avec Nana Mouskouri'' (1969)

''Dans le soleil et dans le vent'' (1969)

''Over and Over'' (1969)

''The exquisite Nana Mouskouri'' (1969)

''Mouskouri International'' (1969)

''Grand Gala'' (1969)

''Verzoekprogramma'' (1969)

''Le Tournesol'' (1970)

''Nana Recital 70'' (1970)

''Sings Hadjidakis'' (1970)

''Turn On the sun'' (1970)

''Bridge Over troubled water'' (1970)

''My favorite Greek songs'' (1970)*

''After Midnight'' (1971)

''A Touch of French'' (1971)

''Love story'' (1971)

''Pour les enfants'' (1971)

''Comme un soleil'' (1971)

''A place in my heart'' (1971)

''Chante la Grèce'' (1972)

''Lieder meiner Heimat'' (1972)

''Xypna Agapi mou'' (1972)

''Christmas with Nana Mouskouri'' (1972)

''British concert'' (1972)

''Une voix... qui vivent du coeur'' (1972)

''Spiti mou spitaki mou'' (1972)

''Presenting...Songs from her TV series'' (1973)

''Vieilles Chansons de France'' (1973)

''Chante Noël'' (1973)

''Day is Done'' (1973)

''An American album'' (1973)

''Spotlight on Nana Mouskouri'' (1973)

''Nana Mouskouri au théatre des champs-Elysées'' (1974)

''Que je sois un ange...'' (1974)

''Nana's Book of Songs'' (1974)

''The most beautiful songs'' (1974)

''Adieu mes amis'' (1974)

''Le temps des cerises'' (1974)

''If You Love me'' (1974)

''The magic of Nana Mouskouri'' (1974)

''Sieben Schwarze Rosen'' (1975)

''Toi qui t'en vas'' (1975)

''Träume sind Sterne'' (1975)

''At The Albert Hall'' (1975)

''Quand tu chantes'' (1976)

''Die Welt ist voll Licht'' (1976)

''Lieder die mann nie vergisst'' (1976)

''Nana in Holland'' (1976)

''Songs of the British isles'' (1976)

''Love goes on'' (1976)

''Quand Tu Chantes''(1976)

''An Evening with Nana Mouskouri'' (1976)

''Ein Portrait'' (1976)

''La récréation'' (1976)

''Passport'' (1976)

''Une voix'' (1976)

''Alleluia'' (1977)

''Glück ist wie ein Schmetterling'' (1977)

''Star für Millionen'' (1977)

''Geliebt und bewundert'' (1977)

''Lieder, die die Liebe schreibt'' (1978)*

''Nouvelles chansons de la Vieille France'' (1978)

''Les enfants du Pirée'' (1978)

''A Paris'' (1979)

''Roses and Sunshine'' (1979)

''Vivre au Soleil'' (1979)

''Sing dein Lied'' (1979)

''Kinderlieder'' (1979)

''Come with me'' (1980)

''Vivre avec toi'' (1980)

''Die stimme in concert'' (1980)

''Wenn ich träum'' (1980)

''Alles Liebe'' (1981)

''Je Chante Avec Toi, Liberté'' (1981)

''Ballades'' (1982)

''Song for liberty'' (1982)

''Farben'' (1983)

''Quand on revient'' (1983)

''When I Dream'' (1983)

''La dame de cœur'' (1984)

''Athina'' (1984)

''Nana'' (1984)

''I endekati entoli'' (1985)

''Ma vérité'' (1985)

''Alone'' (1985)

''Libertad'' (1986)

''Kleine Wahrheiten'' (1986)

''Tu m'oublies'' (1986)

''Why Worry?'' (1986)

''Only Love'' (1986)

''Love Me Tender'' (1987)

''Tierra Viva'' (1987)

''Du und Ich'' (1987)

''Par amour'' (1987)

''Classique'' (1988)

''A voice from the heart'' (1988)

''The magic of Nana Mouskouri'' (1988)

''Concierto en Aranjuez'' (1989)

''Tout Simplement 1&2'' (1989)

''Weinachts Lieder'' (1989)

''Taxidotis'' (1990)

''Gospel'' (1990)

''Only Love: The Best of Nana Mouskouri'' (1991)

''Nuestras canciones 1 & 2'' (1991)

''Am Ziel meiner Reise'' (1991)

''Côté Sud - Côté Cœur'' (1992)

''Hollywood'' (1993)

''Falling in Love again'' (1993)

''Dix mille ans encore'' (1994)

''Agapi in'i zoi'' (1994)

''Nur ein Lied'' (1995)

''Nana Latina'' (1996)

''Hommages'' (1997)

''Return to Love'' (1997)

''The Romance of Nana Mouskouri'' (1997)

''Concert for peace'' (1998)

''Chanter la vie'' (1998)

''As time goes by'' (1999)

''The Christmas Album'' (2000)

''At Her Very Best'' (2001)

''Erinnerungen'' (2001)

''Songs the whole world loves'' (2001)

''Fille du soleil'' (2002)

''Un bolero Por Favor'' (2002)

''Ode to Joy'' (2002)

''Nana Swings'' (2003)

''Ich hab'gelacht, ich hab'geweint'' (2004)

''L'Integrale'' Collection (34 CD Box Set) (2004)

''A Canadian Tribute'' (2004)

''I'll Remember You'' (2005)

''Complete English Works'' Collection (17 CD Box Set) (2005)

''Moni Perpato'' (2006)

''Nana Mouskouri (Gold)'' (2 CD) (2006)

''Le Ciel est Noir - les 50 plus belles chansons'' (3 CD) (2007)

''The Ultimate Collection'' (2007)

''Les 100 plus belles chansons'' (5 CD) (2007)

''50 Hronia Tragoudia (50 Years Of Songs)'' (2007)

''Alma Latina Todas sus grabaciones en español'' (5CD) (2008)

''The Best Of (Green Series)'' (2008)

''The Very Best Of'' (Readers Digest 4 CD-Box) (2008)

''The Ultimate Collection'' (Taiwan) (2CD) (2008)

''The Greatest Hits: Korea Tour Edition'' (2 CD-Box) (2008)

''The Singer'' (2008)

''Nana Mouskouri - Best Selection'' (2009)

''Nana sings'' (reissue) (2009)

''Nana Mouskouri: Les hits'' (2009)

''Meine Schönsten Welterfolge vol. 2'' (2CD) (2009)

''Les n°1 de Nana Mouskouri (Edition Limitée)'' (2CD) (2009)

''La mas completa coleccion'' (2009)

''Nana Mouskouri I'' (2009)

''Nana Mouskouri: Highlights 娜娜穆斯库莉:精选'' (2010)

''As time goes by (Nana Mouskouri sings the Great Movie Themes)'' (reissue) (2010)

''The Danish Collection'' (reissue) (2010)

''Nana Jazz'' (2010)

''My 60's Favourites'' (2010)

''Mes chansons de France'' (2010)

''Nana around the world'' (2010)

''Ballads and Love songs'' (2010)

''Nana Country'' (2010)

See also

Best selling music artists

References

Site québécois de Nana Mouskouri Biography, discography by language, list of 1 800 recordings, covers magazines, TV in Quebec, drawings, memories et topicalities.

External links

YouTube video of Mouskouri in 1960 (without her glasses) singing a song by Hadjidakis

Category:1934 births Category:Living people Category:People from Chania Prefecture Category:Luxembourgian Eurovision Song Contest entrants Category:Greek female singers Category:Greek entehno singers Category:Greek women in politics Category:People from Athens Category:French-language singers Category:German-language singers Category:Spanish-language singers Category:Latin-language singers Category:Hebrew-language singers Category:Italian-language singers Category:Japanese-language singers Category:Modern Greek-language singers Category:Greek pacifists Category:Thessaloniki Song Festival entrants Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1963 Category:MEPs for Greece 1994–1999 Category:UNICEF people Category:Singers from Crete

an:Nana Mouskouri ast:Nana Mouskouri br:Nana Mousc'houri bg:Нана Мускури ca:Nana Mouskouri cy:Nana Mouskouri de:Nana Mouskouri et:Nana Mouskouri el:Νάνα Μούσχουρη es:Nana Mouskouri eo:Nana Mouskouri ext:Nana Mouskouri fa:نانا موسکوری fr:Nana Mouskouri ga:Nana Mouskouri gl:Nana Mouskouri ko:나나 무스쿠리 io:Nana Mouskouri id:Nana Mouskouri ia:Nana Mouskouri ie:Nana Mouskouri it:Nana Mouskouri he:ננה מושקורי sw:Nana Mouskouri la:Ioanna Muschure nah:Nana Mouskouri nl:Nana Mouskouri ja:ナナ・ムスクーリ no:Nana Mouskouri oc:Nana Mouskouri pl:Nana Mouskouri pt:Nana Mouskouri ru:Мускури, Нана sq:Nana Mouskouri sl:Nana Mouskouri fi:Nana Mouskouri sv:Nana Mouskouri tr:Nana Mouskouri uk:Нана Мускурі vo:Nana Mouskouri zh:娜娜·穆斯库莉

name	Joanna Lumley
birth date	May 01, 1946
birth place	Srinagar, Kashmir and Jammu, British India
birth name	Joanna Lamond Lumley
years active	1957-present
spouse	Jeremy Lloyd (1970-1970, divorced)Stephen Barlow (1986-present)
partner	Michael Claydon (1960s)
children	Son
parents	James LumleyBeatrice (neé Weir)
nationality	British
ethnicity	White British
occupation	Actress
television	''Coronation Street''''The New Avengers''''Sapphire & Steel''''Absolutely Fabulous'' }}

Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS (born 1 May 1946) is an English actress, voice-over artist and author, best known for her roles in British television series ''Absolutely Fabulous'' portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in ''The New Avengers'', ''Sapphire & Steel'', and ''Sensitive Skin''. She is a former model and Bond girl. Her distinctive voice has been supplied for animated characters, film narration, and AOL's "You have email" notification in the UK. She has spoken out as a human rights activist for Survival International and the Gurkha Justice Campaign, and is now considered a "national treasure" of Nepal because of her support. She is an advocate for a number of charities and animal welfare groups such as CIWF and Viva! She has won three BAFTA awards and a British comedy award.

Early life

Joanna Lamond Lumley was born on 1 May 1946 in Srinagar, in the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu, which was then part of British India. Her parents were Major James Rutherford Lumley, who served in the 6th Gurkha Rifles, a regiment of the British Indian Army, and Beatrice Rose Weir. They married in 1941. After the independence of India in 1947, the Lumleys moved to Malaya (now Malaysia) and later settled in Kent, England. and afterwards attended the Lucy Clayton School of modelling. She then went on to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Lumley states RADA rejected her.

Early career

Tall, slim and blonde, she spent three years as a photographic model, notably for Brian Duffy by whom she was photographed with her son. She also worked as a house model for Jean Muir. Over forty years later, she participated in another photoshoot - again with her son - for Duffy as part of a retrospective of the photographer's work.

Lumley appeared in an early episode of ''The Bruce Forsyth Show'' in 1966. She appeared in a UK television advertisement for Nimble bread first screened in 1969.

Lumley did not receive any formal training at drama school. Her acting career began in 1969 with a small role in the film ''Some Girls Do'' and as a Bond girl in ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service''; she played the English girl among Blofeld's 'Angels of Death' and had two lines. She went on to have a brief but memorable role in ''Coronation Street'', in which her character turned down Ken Barlow's offer of marriage.

In the ''Are You Being Served?'' episode "His and Hers" (season 1; episode 4), she was featured as Miss French, a perfume representative. In the episode "German Week" (season 3; episode 6), she appeared as "German Lady".

She appeared as "Jessica" on the big screen in ''The Satanic Rites of Dracula'', released in the UK on 13 January 1974, which was the last of Hammer Film's Dracula series starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

She appeared in the TV series ''Steptoe and Son'' in the episode "Loathe Story".

Major roles

Throughout her career, she has specialised in playing upper-class parts, and her distinctive voice has reinforced this. Lumley's first major role was as Purdey in ''The New Avengers'', a revival of the secret agent series ''The Avengers''. Although critical reaction to the series was lukewarm, the casting of Lumley was seen as inspired and following the tradition of iconic Avengers actresses Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson.

In 1979, she appeared in another series which acquired a following: ''Sapphire & Steel'', with David McCallum. Conceived as ITV's answer to ''Doctor Who'', Lumley played a mysterious elemental being ('Sapphire') who, with her collaborator 'Steel', dealt with breaches in the fabric of time.

Over a decade later, Lumley's career was boosted by her portrayal of the louche, solipsistic and frequently drunken fashion director Patsy Stone, companion to Jennifer Saunders' Edina Monsoon in the BBC comedy television series ''Absolutely Fabulous'' (1992–1996) and (2001–2004).

Other work has included: ''Lovejoy'' as widow Victoria Cavero, a film about a journey made by her grandparents in Bhutan - ''In the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon'' (1996) - and ''A Rather English Marriage'' (nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actress 1999) and ''Dr Willoughby'' (1999). In 1995, she provided the voice of Annie the rag doll in the animated series ''The Forgotten Toys''. In 1999, she also provided the voice for Sims the chicken in the BAFTA award winning animated series ''The Foxbusters''. In 2000, she co-produced a new drama series ''The Cazalets''. She has also appeared in a TV series on Sarawak, where she spent time in her childhood. She has demonstrated her ability to go beyond stereotypical images, most notably in the monologue series of playlets ''Up In Town'' (2002), written by Hugo Blick, and focusing on a society hostess's realisation that her star is fading.

Lumley starred as the elderly Delilah Stagg in the 2006 sitcom ''Jam & Jerusalem'' with Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Sue Johnston. In July 2007, she starred in the second series of the drama ''Sensitive Skin'' where she played the main character Davina Jackson. The BBC said this will be the final series of the dark comedy.

She starred in David Hirson's ''La Bête'' - Comedy Theatre, London, 26 June - 28 August 2010 with David Hyde Pierce and Mark Rylance, directed by Matthew Warchus.She also starred in ''La Bête'' at the Music Box Theater, Broadway, New York which opened on the 14 October 2010. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, for her performance.

Media work

As the possessor of one of the most recognised voices in the United Kingdom, Lumley has gained prominence as a voice-over artist. Users of AOL in the United Kingdom are familiar with Joanna Lumley's voice. She recorded the greetings "Welcome" and "You've got e-mail" for that company. She also did a voice over for the BBC series ''Posh Nosh'' as a voice-over usually saying "From the Posh Nosh range (a faux product)."

She appeared as a guest host on Channel 4's ''The Friday Night Project'', which aired on 3 August 2007.

From 2005-2006, she appeared in adverts for insurance brokers Privilege.

Lumley has also appeared on the last run of ITV1's ''Parkinson'' as a guest, on 27 October 2007, discussing the subject of young girls across the UK and how they need to behave better if they hope to be successful. She was asked to write the introduction to a re-edition in November 2007 of the book called ''The Magic Key To Charm'' written by the pioneering female journalist Eileen Ascroft. This is a book of tips to women, first written by Ascroft in 1938 about how to be glamorous. "I thought it was absolutely enchanting, it's how young women were told how to behave in the old days and I think it might be just coming back for a bit of a revival," she explained in the interview.

"Because, I have to say I adore our young ones and I think we have got some of the prettiest and loveliest girls in the world but I think sometimes the behaviour gets a bit bad and I think the girls let themselves down. They are so pretty and so lovely but they should behave better, I think, then they will be more successful."

In 1999, she appeared in the Comic Relief ''Doctor Who'' parody ''The Curse of Fatal Death'' as the final incarnation of the Doctor. She also appeared with Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French and Sienna Miller in the French and Saunders pastiche of ''Mamma Mia'' for ''Comic Relief'' 2009 in which she played the role of Tanya (Patsy in the spoof).

In 2004, Lumley appeared as the "Woman with the Sydney Opera House Head" in Dirk Maggs's long-awaited radio adaptation of the third book of the Douglas Adams series ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''.

In 2005, she published her autobiography ''No Room for Secrets'' which was serialized by ''The Times'', for which she was once a regular contributor.

In September and December 2008, and April 2009, the BBC showed ''Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights'', a documentary about her search to see the Northern Lights in northern Norway.

In May 2009, she supported the Green Party during the 2009 European Elections campaign. For Joanna Lumley, the work of Green MEPs in the European Parliament in pursuing human rights and animal rights made the Green Party "the obvious choice", and urged UK voters "to cast a positive vote for a better future by voting Green in the European Elections". Lumley also appeared in literature to support changing the British electoral system from first-past-the-post to alternative vote for electing Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the Alternative Vote referendum in 2011.

In 2009, she portrayed a rock star, believed to be dead for 35 years, in the "Counter Culture Blues" episode of the British television mystery series '' Lewis'' (known in the U.S. as ''Inspector Lewis'').

In 2010, she donated £1,000 to Caroline Lucas's campaign to become the first Green MP during the 2010 General Election campaign.

In 2010, Lumley worked on the show, for ITV, ''Joanna Lumley's Nile'', where she takes a journey down the Nile, from source to sea. This was broadcast in four parts on ITV1 from 28 to 31 December 2010.

Activism

As an activist, Lumley is best known for her support for Gurkhas, the exiled Tibetan people and government, the Kondha indigenous people of India, and the Prospect Burma charity, which offers grants to Burmese students, for whom she broadcast a BBC Radio 4 charity appeal in 2001.

Gurkha Justice Campaign

In 2008, she became the public face of a campaign to provide all Gurkha veterans who served in the British Army before 1997 the right to settle in Britain. Those serving after 1997 had already been granted permission, but the UK Government has not extended the offer to all of the Gurkhas, who are natives of Nepal. They have served Britain for more than 200 years with over 50,000 dying in service, and 13 have been awarded the Victoria Cross. On 20 November 2008, Lumley led a large all-party group including Gurkhas starting from Parliament Square to 10 Downing Street with a petition signed by 250,000 people. She supports the Gurkha Justice Campaign. On 24 April 2009, she stated that she was "ashamed" of the UK administration's decision to affix five criteria to the Gurkhas' right to settle in the UK. With the support of both Opposition parties and Labour rebel MPs on 29 April 2009, a Liberal Democrat motion that all Gurkhas be offered an equal right of residence was passed, allowing Gurkhas who served before 1997 residence in the UK. Following the Government defeat, the Minister for Immigration Phil Woolas announced that a further review would be completed by the middle of July.

On 5 May, Lumley said that she had received private assurances of support from a senior member of the Royal Family, and attended a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street the following day. Afterwards, she described the meeting as "extremely positive", and praised Mr Brown, saying, "I trust him. I rely on him. And I know that he has now taken this matter into his own hands and so today is a very good day."

However, on the day following the meeting with Brown, five Gurkha veterans who had applied for residency in the United Kingdom received letters telling them that their appeals had been rejected - many saw this as a betrayal, despite the fact that for the letters to have been received immediately following the meeting they must have been sent previous to it. Ms Lumley confronted Phil Woolas at the BBC Westminster studios about the issue and, after pursuing him around the studio, the pair held an impromptu press conference in which she pressured him into agreeing to further talks over the issue.

Following a Commons Home Affairs Committee meeting in which talks were held between campaigners, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office on 19 May, Gordon Brown announced to the House of Commons on 20 May that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would make a statement on the issue the following day. Ms Smith subsequently announced that all Gurkha veterans who had served four years or more in the British Army before 1997 would be allowed to settle in Britain.

As a result of her campaigning skills, there were calls for Joanna Lumley to stand as a Member of Parliament at the forthcoming general election. However, she has dismissed the suggestion. During an appearance on ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' on 29 May, she reiterated that she had no desire to run for election to the House of Commons.

In July 2009, Lumley went on a visit to Nepal, upon her arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport she was greeted by crowds of Gurkha supporters, Lumley said in a statement, "I feel so humbled by the fact I'm going to meet so many ex-Gurkhas and their families, and see where they are and how they live." Whilst there, Lumley was hailed 'Daughter of Nepal' by the crowds of fans at the airport.

In August 2010, Lumley teamed up with British food company Sharwood's to help develop a limited edition Mango Chutney with Kashmiri Chilli, an ingredient from her birthplace. Sharwood’s will donate 10p from each jar sold to the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

Work for Survival International

Lumley has been a supporter of Survival International and the cause of indigenous rights. She was the narrator of Survival's documentary, ''Mine: story of a sacred mountain''. The film tells the story of the remote Dongria Kondh tribe in India and their battle to stop a vast bauxite mine from destroying their land and way of life. In defence of the Dongria tribe, she has said, "It greatly disturbs me that a British company will be responsible for the destruction of these wonderful people. I urge the public to support the Dongria, who simply want to be allowed to live in peace. Unlike so many of India's rural poor, the Dongria Kondh actually live very well in the Niyamgiri hills, and it's a terrible irony that what Vedanta is proposing to do in the name of 'development' will actually destroy this completely self-sufficient people." Later, Lumley contributed her writing for the book, ''We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples'', released in October 2009, with profits going in support of Survival. The book, composed by a collection of photographs, statements from tribal people, and essays from international authors, explores the richness of the culture of the indigenous peoples around the world, as well as the risks to their existence. In her essay for the book, Lumley speaks of the Dongria way of life, the threat they face in the name of corporate interests, and she calls for action to stop such decisions.

Patron of Tree Aid

Lumley has been a patron of the UK charity Tree Aid, since 1993. Tree Aid is a charity which enables communities in Africa's drylands to fight poverty and become self-reliant, while improving the environment.

Personal life

Following her rise to fame, Lumley revealed that she had been an unmarried mother during the 1960s when it was socially unacceptable; her son, James, was born in 1967. James Lumley's natural father is the photographer Michael Claydon and is of Anglo Indian ethnicity. The first of her two subsequent marriages was to comedy writer Jeremy Lloyd (''Are You Being Served?'' see early career). In 1986, she married conductor Stephen Barlow; they live in London. They also have a house near the village of Penpont in Southern Scotland.

Lumley was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1995. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS). She was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Kent in July 1994. In 2006, she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of St. Andrews and in July 2008, she was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Queen's University Belfast.

Alongside her work for the Gurkhas, Lumley is a supporter of many charities, including Suffolk Family Carers and Kids for Kids. She has been a vegetarian for forty years, and a keen supporter of animal rights charities, including CIWF and Viva!. She has donated signed books for the literacy and international development charity Book Aid International. She is patron of the Born Free Foundation and passionate about the Free Tibet campaign. Other charities supported include Mind, ActionAid and SANE.

Lumley was named an Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin.

Lumley also supports the Burma Campaign UK, an NGO that aims to stop the oppression of the Burmese people by the military regime.

Lumley was the special guest at the 35th anniversary gala of the theatre company Chickenshed at London's Royal Albert Hall on 17 November 2009.

In February 2010, Lumley was awarded 'The Oldie of The Year Award' by The Oldie Magazine for her work with the Gurkhas.

Filmography

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! colspan=4 style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film |- align="center" ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Year ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Title ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Role ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Notes |- | rowspan="2"|1969 | ''Some Girls Do'' | Uncredited | |- | ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' | The English Girl | |- | rowspan="3"|1970 | ''The Breaking of Bumbo'' | Susie | |- | ''Games That Lovers Play'' | Fanny Hill | |- | ''Tam-Lin'' | Georgia | |- | 1971 | ''The House That Dripped Blood'' | Uncredited | |- | rowspan="2"|1973 | ''Don't Just Lie There, Say Something!'' | Giselle Parkyn | |- | ''The Satanic Rites of Dracula'' | Jessica Van Helsing | |- | 1982 | ''Trail of the Pink Panther'' | Marie Jouvet | |- | 1983 | ''Curse of the Pink Panther'' | Countess Chandra | |- | 1989 | ''Shirley Valentine'' | Marjorie Majors | |- | 1995 | ''Innocent Lies'' | Lady Helena Graves | |- | 1996 | ''James and the Giant Peach'' | Aunt Spiker | |- | 1997 | ''Prince Valiant'' | Morgan le Fay | |- | rowspan="2"|1999 | ''Parting Shots'' | Freda | |- | ''Mad Cows'' | Gillian | |- | rowspan="2"|2000 | ''Maybe Baby'' | Sheila | |- | ''Whispers: An Elephant's Tale '' | Half Tusk (voice) | |- | 2001 | ''The Cat's Meow'' | Elinor Glyn | |- | rowspan="3"|2004 | ''Standing Room Only'' | Last in Line | Short film |- | ''EuroTrip'' | Hostel Clerk | |- | ''Ella Enchanted'' | Dame Olga | |- |- | rowspan="2"|2005 | ''The Magic Roundabout'' | Ermintrude | |- | ''Corpse Bride'' | Maudeline Everglot | |- | 2006 | ''Dolls'' | Madame Muscat | Short film |- | 2009 | ''Boogie Woogie'' | Alfreda Rhinegold | |- | 2010 | ''This Beautiful Fantastic'' | TBA | ''In production'' |- | 2011 | ''Late Bloomers'' | Charlotte | ''Filming'' |- |}

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! colspan=4 style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Television |- align="center" ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Year ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Title ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Role ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Notes |- | 1969 | ''The Wednesday Play'' | Elsie Engelfield | 1 episode |- | 1971 | ''It's Awfully Bad For Your Eyes, Darling'' | Samantha Ryder-Ross | TV series |- | 1972 | ''Steptoe and Son'' | Bunty | 1 episode 'Loathe Story' |- | 1973 | ''Coronation Street'' | Elaine Perkins | 102 episodes (although some say it was 104) |- | 1973-75 | ''Are You Being Served?'' | Miss French/German Lady | 2 episodes 'His and Hers', 'German Week' |- | 1976 | ''The Cuckoo Waltz'' | Harriet Paulden | 1 episode 'Babysitter' |- | 1976-77 | ''The New Avengers'' | Purdey | 26 episodes. BAFTA win - "Special Award" (2000) |- | 1979 | ''The Plank'' | Hitchhiker | |- | 1979-82 | ''Sapphire & Steel'' | Sapphire | 34 episodes |- | 1981-85 | ''The Kenny Everett Television Show'' | Various | 5 episodes |- | 1982 | ''The Weather in the Streets '' | Kate | TV film |- | rowspan="3"|1984 | ''Mistral's Daughter'' | Lally Longbridge | TV mini-series |- | ''The Glory Boys'' | Helen | TV film |- | ''Oxbridge Blues'' | Gigi | 1 episode 'That Was Tory' |- | 1986 | ''The Two Ronnies'' | Miss Dibley | 1 episode |- | 1990 | ''A Ghost in Monte Carlo'' | Lady Drayton | TV film |- | 1991 | ''A Perfect Hero'' | Loretta Stone | TV miniseries |- | 1992 | ''Lovejoy'' | Victoria Cavero | 3 episodes |- | 1992–2004 | ''Absolutely Fabulous'' | Patsy Stone | 37 episodes. British Comedy Award win - "Best Comedy Actress" (1993) BAFTA win - "Best Light Entertainment Performance" (1993) BAFTA win - "Best Comedy Performance" (1995) BAFTA nomination - "Best Comedy Performance" (1996) BAFTA nomination - "Best Comedy Performance" (1997) BAFTA nomination - "Best Comedy Performance" (2002) |- | 1993 | ''Cluedo'' | Mrs. Peacock | 6 episodes |- | 1994 | ''Girl Friday'' | | TV series |- | 1994-95 | ''Class Act'' | Kate Swift | 14 episodes |- | rowspan="2"|1995 | ''Cold Comfort Farm'' | Mrs. Mary Smiling | TV film |- | ''The Forgotten Toys'' | Annie (voice) | Animated series |- | 1996 | ''Roseanne'' | Patsy Stone | 1 episode 'Satan, Darling' |- | rowspan="3"|1998 | ''The Tale of Sweeney Todd'' | Mrs. Lovett | TV film |- | ''Coming Home'' | Diana Carey-Lewis | TV serial |- | ''A Rather English Marriage'' | Liz Franks | TV film. BAFTA nomination - "Best Actress" |- | rowspan="4"|1999 | ''Alice in Wonderland'' | Tiger Lily | TV film |- | ''Nancherrow'' | Diana Carey-Lewis | TV film |- | ''Foxbusters'' | Sims (voice) | Animation series |- | ''Dr Willoughby'' | Donna Sinclair | 1 series of 6 episodes |- | 2000 | ''Mirrorball'' | Jackie Riviera | Pilot |- | 2002 | ''Up In Town'' | Madison Blakelock | TV series. British Comedy Award nomination - "Best Comedy Actress" |- | 2004, 2009 | ''Marple'' | Dolly Bantry | 2 episodes 'The Body in the Library' & 'The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side' |- | 2005-07 | ''Sensitive Skin'' | Davina Jackson | 12 episodes |- | 2006–2008 | ''Jam & Jerusalem'' | Delilah Stagg | 6 episodes |- | rowspan="1"|2009 | ''Lewis'' | Esme Ford | 1 episode 'Counter Culture Blues' |- | 2010 | ''Mistresses'' | Vivienne | 4 episodes |- |}

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! colspan=4 style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Documentary |- align="center" ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Year ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Title ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Role |- | rowspan="2"|2008 | ''Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights'' | Herself |- | ''Ian Fleming: Where Bond Began'' | Herself |- | |2009 | ''Joanna Lumley Catwoman'' | Herself |- | |2010 | ''Joanna Lumley's Nile'' | Herself |- |}

Theatre

''Blithe Spirit''

''Hedda Gabler'' - Dundee Rep

''Noel & Gertie'' - King's Head

''Private Lives''

''The Letter'' by Somerset Maugham, Lyric Hammersmith, 1995

''Jack and the Beanstalk'' by Roald Dahl, Royal Albert Hall, December 1996

''The Cherry Orchard'' - Sheffield Crucible, March 2007

''David Hirson's La Bête'' - Comedy Theatre, London, 26 June - 28 August 2010 with David Hyde Pierce and Mark Rylance, directed by Matthew Warchus. Opened at the Music Box Theater, Broadway, New York - 14 October 2010. 2011 Tony Award Nomination for Best Featured Actress in a play.

Books

As author

''Peacocks and Commas: Best of the "Spectator" Competitions'' (1983) - Editor

''Stare Back and Smile: Memoirs'' (1989) - Autobiography

''Forces Sweethearts''

''Girl Friday'' (1994)

''In the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon'' (1997)

''No Room for Secrets'' (2005) - Autobiography

She has also narrated a number of audiobooks and provided forewords for works by other authors.

As subject

''Joanna Lumley — The Biography'' by Tim Ewbank and Stafford Hildred; an unauthorised biography.

References

External links

BBC biography

Joanna Lumley at HorrorStars

Joanna Lumleys' Biography

The Oldie Magazine

Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:English autobiographers Category:English female models Category:English film actors Category:English non-fiction writers Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:English vegetarians Category:English voice actors Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Jammu and Kashmir Category:People from Stockwell

cy:Joanna Lumley de:Joanna Lumley fr:Joanna Lumley it:Joanna Lumley he:ג'ואנה למליי nl:Joanna Lumley no:Joanna Lumley pl:Joanna Lumley ru:Ламли, Джоанна fi:Joanna Lumley sv:Joanna Lumley