Greek actor Christos Fragos has died at the age of 90, fellow actor Spyros Bibilas announced in an Instagram post on September 13. Bibilas said Fragos passed away on September 9.
Bibilas, who paid tribute to his colleague in the post, said Fragos would be buried in Spata, the town where he was born, on Monday, September 14, at 6pm.
In the post, Bibilas traced Fragos's long career on stage and screen and his collaborations with some of the most important figures in twentieth-century Greek theatre, among them Dimitris Myrat, Dimitris Rondiris, Anna Synodinou and Elsa Vergi.
Early life and training
According to Bibilas, Fragos was born in Spata on July 10, 1936. He trained as an actor at Greece's National Theatre, the country's principal state theatre company, where his teachers included Alexis Minotis, Dimitris Rondiris, Thanos Kotsopoulos and Eleni Halkousi.
Bibilas described these four as among the most significant teachers of Fragos's early career, and noted that in his first years as a performer Fragos went on to work alongside what he called the great figures of Greek theatre.
Stage debut and early collaborations
Fragos made his stage debut in 1964, appearing with Dimitris Myrat's touring company in the play "Otan oi Atreides" ("When the Atreides") at the Kotopouli Theatre. The following year he spent a season with Rondiris's company, the Piraiko Theatro, or Piraeus Theatre, touring productions across Europe and Latin America.
In the summer of 1966, and again from the summer of 1967 through that September, he worked with Anna Synodinou's troupe, Elliniki Skini (Greek Stage), touring Volos and Thessaloniki with productions of ancient Greek drama. Synodinou was a leading tragedienne of the Greek stage, known in particular for her performances in works of ancient tragedy.
Meeting Elsa Vergi
Bibilas described the winter of 1967 as a turning point in Fragos's life. It was then that he met the actress and theatre company director Elsa Vergi and began a long association with her company, Theatro Vergi. He signed on for a European tour titled "Morfes Archaiou Dramatos" ("Forms of Ancient Drama"), performing works by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.
Fragos returned to the Piraeus Theatre in April 1968, then worked again with Theatro Vergi in April 1969. That May, he signed with Kostis Michailidis's company to perform in "Iphigenia in Aulis" for a run of shows within Greece. In the winter of 1969 he joined Nikos Hatzikos's troupe at Theatro Kava.
Marriage to Elsa Vergi
The bond that began with Fragos and Vergi's meeting in 1967 grew into a romance built on their shared devotion to theatre and the craft of acting, Bibilas wrote. The couple married and stayed together until Vergi's death in 1989. Fragos served as co-director of Theatro Vergi alongside her for decades, a company Vergi had built into one of the notable troupes of postwar Greek theatre.
Television career
On television, Fragos appeared in a number of highly watched series, including "To Ouranio Toxo" ("The Rainbow"), "To Galazio Diamanti" ("The Blue Diamond"), "I Exafanisi tou Tzon Avlakioti" ("The Disappearance of John Avlakiotis"), "I Apodrasi" ("The Escape") and "I Oikogeneia" ("The Family").
Later work and funeral
From 1996, Fragos worked for several years with Anna Synodinou on productions staged free of charge for school students. Bibilas closed his tribute by confirming that Fragos would be laid to rest in Spata at 6pm on Monday, September 14.
