Giorgos Spanos

Giorgos Spanos (Greek: Γιώργος Σπανός; September 2, 1925 - February 23, 2021) was a Greek film producer, screenwriter, director, entrepreneur and politician. He was best known for co-owning The Griffon Group with his cousin Spiros Manousakis. Griffon specialized in producing low-to-mid-budget American films, primarily genre films, during the 1980s after Spanos and Manousakis had achieved significant filmmaking success throughout Europe during the 1970s. In 1988, The Griffon Group was bought by RKO Media and helped to form their RKO-Griffon Group division. Spanos and Manousakis took up bigger positions in RKO Media and took the company public in 1995 before selling their stakes to in 1998.

Spanos also wrote and "polished" numerous film scripts under the pen name Frank Costas. At the time of his death, Spanos had produced over 200 films, directing 44.

In 1989, while still working in the entertainment industry, Spanos entered politics as he was elected to the as a representative of his own Entertainment, Sports and Peace Party. His first tenure in the Hellenic Parliament ended in 2000, but he was reelected in 2009 as a member of. In 2017, Spanos retired from politics due to his worsening Parkinson's disease.

Early life
Born in in the  into a Greek family, Spanos studied directing at the  in, and filmmaking at. He arrived in in 1949.

Film career
Upon arrival in Athens, Spanos was an apprentice at the. He gained experience as a filmmaker by working odd jobs for various Greek film directors. He also began working with his cousin Spiros Manousakis. Spanos and Manousakis later relocated to in 1960 and formed the Spanos-Manousakis production company. Their films proved to be successful in West Germany, and, especially the films starring Spanos' then-wife Olympias Mardas. The success of their movies led to them venturing into other fields of the film industry, including operating movie theater chains in West Germany and Greece.

In 1977, Spanos met the bodybuilder Theodore Sakalis at a conference. Sakalis was cast in the lead role in his and Manousakis' first successful English-language film, The Giant of New York, which grossed US$20 million in the on a US$3 million budget. Sakalis became a popular action film star during the 1980s and 1990s.

1989–2000: First stint
Spanos entered politics in 1989, when he was elected into the Hellenic Parliament in the November 1989 Greek legislative election as a representative of his own Entertainment, Sports and Peace Party, which aimed to "bridge the gap" between politics and the mainstream by getting Greeks from the sports world and the entertainment industry involved in sociopolitical activism. He subsequently retained his seat in the 1990, 1993 and 1996 elections, but failed to win re-election in 2000 following a number of scandals reported in 1998-99, and left politics for the next nine years.

2009–2017: Second stint
After Parliament was dissolved on September 9, 2009 following a request by, Spanos announced that he would again run for a seat in the Hellenic Parliament under the ticket. Spanos won a seat in the election and returned to Parliament.

Personal life
Spanos was married to actress and fellow Egyptian Greek Olympias Mardas from 1955 to 1974. They had a son, Loukas Spanos, who became a musician and composed the scores for several of his father's films in the 1980s. In 1978, Spanos remarried to South African actress Colleen Heyns, and together they had a daughter, Angelina, and two sons, Zachary and Colin. The couple divorced in 1994. In 1997, Spanos remarried to model Yianna Kolettis. In 2019, it was reported that Parkinson's disease had confined Spanos to a wheelchair.

Death
On February 23, 2021, Spanos died at his home in, , from complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 95 years old. He is buried alongside his first wife, Olympias Mardas, in.