Melina Mercouri died of lung cancer in New York City on March 6, 1994, at age 70.
Melina Mercouri died on March 6, 1994, in New York City after a battle with lung cancer, at the age of 70. Her death was mourned throughout Greece, where she was regarded not only as a beloved film icon but as a passionate defender of Greek culture and democracy.
She had returned to prominence in her final years as a vocal advocate for the repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles (Elgin Marbles) from the British Museum to Greece, a campaign she had championed since becoming Greek Minister of Culture in 1981. Her funeral in Athens drew immense public mourning, with tens of thousands lining the streets to honor a woman who had become a symbol of modern Greek identity—bridging the worlds of art, resistance, and statecraft.
Her legacy endures through the Melina Mercouri Foundation, established to continue her cultural mission, and through the international Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes, awarded by UNESCO and the Greek government in her honor. She remains one of the most internationally recognized Greek women of the 20th century, remembered equally for her Cannes-winning performances and her fierce, decades-long fight against the Greek military junta and for cultural repatriation.