 She was born Anna Amalia Mercouri or Maria Amalia Mercouri, and became well-known to international audiences when she starred in the 1960 film Never on Sunday, directed by her husband Jules Dassin. Nominated for an Academy award for Never on Sunday, she went on to star in such films as Topkapi, Phaedra, and Gaily, Gaily. Her first film Stella (1955) was directed by Michael Cacoyannis, the director of Zorba the Greek, and was nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. As Minister of Culture, she initiated the launch of the Cultural Capital of Europe. Athens inaugurated this institution in 1986. Mercouri advocated the return of the Parthenon Marbles that Lord Elgin removed from the Parthenon. She died in 1994 in a New York hospital at the age of 73 from lung cancer