The smile, the optimism, and the relentless passion for life never abandoned Nikos Galanos, who passed away yesterday at the age of 80, after a tough and courageous three-year battle with cancer. His loss marks the end of an era, as he was the last jeune premier of the golden age of Greek cinema.

That, of course, does not mean he didn’t face obstacles along the way. Quite the opposite. As a child from a poor family, he learned early what deprivation and the daily struggle for a living meant:
“If you think that we ate meat once a week, that I wore long pants for the first time at 16 going on 17, and I remember that my first pair of pants was brought to me by a friend of my middle brother, who traveled on ships and brought me jeans from America — that’s how I wore my first long pants. Or if you think of the times with our group of friends, walking around the neighborhood, going to the main road and seeing a motorcycle — the ‘Floretta’ — or a car pass by once in a while, and looking at it as if it were a dream. Those things didn’t exist back then! Of course, sometimes it made you sad and you’d think, ‘Why can’t I have that too,’ but on the other hand, I believe those things shaped your character,” he once confided in an interview on Nikos Chatzinikolaou’s show “Enwpios Enwpiw.”

But life’s hardships didn’t discourage him; on the contrary, they led him to take responsibility for himself at a young age. He was only 16 when he left his family home to live on his own. He was always drawn to freedom. And not only did he manage — within a short time, he was starring alongside some of the greatest stars of cinema and theater: Karezi, Vougiouklaki, Kourkoulos, and many others.

He let life lead him; he didn’t chase it — not in his career, nor in his personal life. He didn’t go after roles; they came to him. He didn’t overthink major decisions in his personal life, even if that meant saying a big “yes” to marriage at just 18 years old or walking down the aisle a second time, even though he knew deep down that marriage wasn’t for him.

And yet, he never expressed regret for any of his choices. He treated them all as valuable experiences that shaped his existence.

The First, Unknown Cancer Diagnosis

The first time in his life that fear truly paralyzed him was 25 years ago, during a routine medical check-up, when he discovered he had an aggressive form of cancer.

“The hardest moment for me was in 2001, when, during a routine exam, the doctor told me that my biological end was a matter of months. Fortunately, everything turned out well, but that was the first time I came face-to-face with death,” he had shared in an interview with Yiannis Pantazopoulos for Lifo.

After the initial shock, he found a deep well of strength and faith in a miracle — a miracle that did, indeed, occur. To banish the darkness, he spoke to no one about his diagnosis. He checked into the hospital under a different name and, despite the grim prognosis, emerged victorious. He continued his life, mentally sealing that chapter away in a small, closed box in his memory.

Sadly, nearly two decades later, the illness returned. Yet even then, he didn’t give up. After all, he had beaten cancer once and believed he could do it again. That’s why the new diagnosis didn’t significantly change his life. He went through his treatments and then showed up on set for TV shoots, went out with his partner and friends, kept his spirits high and his optimism alive — and it all showed in his outward appearance. He remained elegant and charming.

In the final year, however, his health deteriorated, forcing him to withdraw from professional commitments. He spent the last months of his life between the hospital and home, confronting his greatest fear — as he had once confessed — of being immobilized, fully conscious of what was happening to him, but powerless to act.

The Heavy Hand of Nikos Kourkoulos

Though Nikos Galanos loved acting and enjoyed the roles he was assigned over the years, there were moments when he had to literally bleed in order to make the artistic outcome as realistic as possible.

Some of the most difficult shoots of his career were for two films he made with Nikos Kourkoulos, who, as it turned out, had a heavy hand. Both were filmed in the same year — 1970.

The first was “Astrapiogiannos”, in which he played the malicious brother of Kourkoulos’ love interest, portrayed by Niki Triantafyllidi.

“The director, Nikos Tzimas, wanted us to film a fight scene. Kourkoulos said to me, ‘Can you handle it if I slap you?’ I said, ‘Go ahead.’ And he gave me such a strong slap with his big hand that my cheek swelled up. I didn’t go to the shoot the next day,” Galanos once recalled.

Just a few months later, he found himself wrestling in the steel mill at Chalyvourgia with Kourkoulos again — in sweltering heat — this time for the film “Visibility: Zero” (“Oratotis Miden”).

“The script called for us to roll down a hill while fighting. That hill was made of metal shavings, burning hot under the sun. Kourkoulos wore pants and a shirt. But Foskoulos wanted me shirtless. When I finished and went home, my whole body was burned from the hot iron, and my back was full of scratches — as if I had been flayed. It took me many days before I could wear a shirt again.”