«It is with deep sorrow and emotion that we bid farewell to one of the greats of the theater, our beloved and cherished companion through the small and the great, the easy and the difficult, in the joys and sorrows of life and struggle, Kostas Kazakos,» states the Central Committee of the KKE in its announcement, and goes on to emphasize:
«Kostas Kazakos was not only a gifted actor, director, and translator of plays. He was a magnanimous individual, with penetrating insight and a deep awareness of art’s social mission to humanize people. His great achievements in the arts were not due simply to the gifts bestowed upon him by nature—his powerful voice, his stately, virile figure, his imposing stature—but primarily to his psychological and spiritual virtues, which were painstakingly honed and matured through hard work and sacrifice from his youth onward in the crucible of life’s struggles and through his passion for education and intellectual development.
His father’s activist legacy and his own personal experiences led him early on to stand on the side of the wronged, on the side of “that segment of the people who bear the greatest social burden,” as he himself put it, referring to the working class and its role in the cause of social liberation.
His choice to pursue a career in theater was a conscious one, inextricably linked to the development of his class and ideological awareness. From his first theatrical appearance after graduating from the drama school of Karolos Koun’s Art Theater, in Bertolt Brecht’s play *The Chalk Circle*, as well as throughout his entire career on stage and in film, Kostas Kazakos has led an iconic career, with leading roles in works by great playwrights, managing to “tame” in a pure—and therefore essentially popular—manner, theatrical texts—both classical and contemporary—that appeal to humanity’s deepest emotions and loftiest thoughts. As a theater manager and director, he carefully selected the plays he staged, choosing those that were socially and historically relevant, such as the production—a symbol of the anti-dictatorship struggle— “Our Great Circus.”.
In 2023, he would have marked 70 years of service to the theater. Indomitable to the very end, he served the dramatic arts with faith and passion rooted in a deep appreciation for its power, in his belief that theater “provides education and is the most popular, timely, immediately understandable, and vibrant art form,” and in his conviction that “theater certainly cannot change the world, but it can change people,” as he used to say.
Faithful to the creative and educational role of progressive art and confident in the boundless potential of the working people, Kostas Kazakos devoted his entire life, his thoughts, emotions, and talent to helping us “realize our strength, raise our morale, and decisively behead the human-shaped monster that is destroying our lives”.
They always viewed art as a struggle for transcendence, progress, and never-ending evolution, and he considered a combative attitude toward life to be inherent to the artist—an attitude he himself followed steadfastly and unwaveringly until the very end. Responding to the historical necessity of our times, Kostas Kazakos fought side by side for decades, on the front lines, with the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), even from his position as a member of parliament, always present in all the struggles of the working-class and anti-imperialist movements.
His political activism was a harmonious coexistence of life and artistic practice. His ideology shaped his life, and this came through naturally in his work. We cannot distinguish between Kostas Kazakos’s political activism and his artistic activity. First and foremost, through his work he served his cherished social ideals and the class that embodied them; and second, through his active presence in all the major political struggles, he reaffirmed the very meaning behind his work.
Comrade Kostas will remain in our hearts; he will remain in the hearts of the entire working class—that “enemy of the people”—whom he loved so much and who resembled him so much in their simplicity, warmth, and down-to-earth nature of his great soul. He will not be forgotten, for he was a protagonist brimming with passion and strength—not merely on stage, on film sets, or on the podiums of demonstrations, but ultimately in History. He “longed for a country” where the people would cease “to wait in vain for the right time.” And if the few cannot forgive him for this, it is a confirmation that he fulfilled his duty as an artist and as a human being; it is a reward for his life. The days when the people “will no longer accept having their path blocked”—the days he longed for—will come, sooner or later. All those who carry on his legacy, fighting for a higher civilization within a higher form of social organization, will ensure that this happens.
»We extend our deepest condolences to his beloved partner Jenny, his children, his grandchildren, and all his loved ones.".
