Kleon Triantafyllou(1885-1944)
- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Famous light music composer Kleon Triantafyllou is better known as
Attik. Attik was the son of a wealthy Greek cotton merchant of Egypt.
He lived in Paris for some years. He became an accomplished pianist,
composer, singer, actor, mime and one-man show. Once he performed in
front of the last Czar. He is also remembered for his famous double
whistle while playing the piano. Just like his role in his only film
"Hirokrotimata", Attik had a sensitive heart and used always to fall in
love with his leading ladies. Many talented young ladies became
celebrity singers in Attik's theatre. Among his many famous songs,
there was one, 'I have seen eyes', which was dedicated to his beautiful
wife Marika Filippidou. But his wife left him to marry Spiros Mercouris
who became later mayor of Athens. Famous Greek actress
Melina Mercouri was the product of that
marriage. There is a story that Marika Filippidou came with her new
husband to the theater while Attik was performing on stage. The
audience noticed her and started to shout to Attik to play the song 'I
have seen eyes'. Attik, in great anguish, retreated behind the
curtains. But he was a great and talented artist, so ten later he
appeared again on stage, sat by the piano and played a new song he had
just composed. The first lines of the song were the following: 'You
have asked me to tell you of my first tune, my piques of the past, you
have asked 'I have seen eyes' that have smashed me into pieces. In an
old wound, still bleeding, you don't twist the knife'. The audience
applauded enthusiastically. The song became a huge success. In August
1944 as Attik was walking in downtown Athens, he bumped, by mistake
into a German soldier. The German soldier beat him up. That night,
heart-broken, the sensitive Attik took an overdose of his sedative
medicine and died in his sleep.