The life of Costas Mandylor has been a whirlwind – a great journey – with pit stops taken in Greece and America on his way to becoming one of Australia’s most prolific acting exports.
Mandylor (born Costas Theodosopoulos) has cultivated a great reputation in Hollywood with a career that spans as far back as 1989.
His acting career has seen him perform in countless films and television shows like the ‘Saw’ franchise and the drama ‘Picket Fences’, which earned him two Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations as part of an ensemble.
Oddly enough, however, acting was not his first passion.

Nearly playing for Panathinaikos
Before he ever went to America, the Melbourne-raised star had his sights set on a very promising career in football.
“My youngest and first love was football,” Mandylor told Neos Kosmos.
The actor featured for various clubs in Victoria, getting close with numerous well-known stars like Ange Postecoglou, Peter Tsolakis and John Anastasiadis, before eventually going to Greece to try and break into a club there.
“I remember jogging around the Atromitos football ground in Peristeri and somebody saw me and thought ‘This kid is fit. Can he play?’. I told them it was my dream to play and so they invited me to Atromitos…I became friendly with the players and started training with them at their stadium.”
Mandylor initially went to Greece because a person at Port Melbourne had a connection with Jacek Gmoch, the coach of Panathinaikos at the time (during the 1984/85 season), and through that he met people at Paiania (the Greens’ training ground).
The actor explained that was the year where the “Trifylli” was eliminated in the semi-finals of the European Cup (now known as the Champions League) by Liverpool.

“I trained under Gmoch with great players of Panathinaikos like Dimitris Saravakos, Spiros Livathinos, Juan Ramon Rocha, Velimir Zajec etc,” he said.
Mandylor’s efforts were recognised and Gmoch had even booked in a meeting at the end of the season to discuss his future, but things changed drastically before they could have that talk.
“(Gmoch) was fired days before we could talk and my dream of being a Panathinaikos player dampened and went away.”
Mandylor returned to Australia and continued his career, winning various titles, before a shin splints injury he suffered while training to get into South Melbourne Hellas’ team effectively ended his football aspirations.

Beginning the acting experiment
The injury led to the Greek Australian visiting friends in Los Angeles where, out of nowhere, a new career presented itself.
“All of a sudden, different, random people in this business that I knew nothing about came up to me and said, ‘Have you ever thought of trying acting?’ “he said.
Mandylor first managed to get some modelling jobs which provided him with enough money to survive as he began taking classes and giving acting a real try.
He struggled to find the right acting coach for him until he met a particular woman who had studied under legendary acting coach Sanford Meisner.
Mandylor explained she thought he had potential and reassured him it was not an issue he had no prior training, saying he had good instincts and could develop on it.
The actor expressed, upon reflection, that his childhood in Melbourne had prepared him for acting as he worked during his teenage years in the city as a dishwasher into the late hours, gaining a firsthand look at many different types of human behaviour.
“I fell in love with the art of acting and human behaviour…I stuck it out and started getting acting jobs eventually,” he said.
“The football dream ended, and the acting experiment began.”

A surreal encounter with Anthony Quinn
When reflecting on his career thus far, one highlight stood out above the rest for Mandylor: working with Anthony Quinn.
The Melbourne native worked with the iconic actor on a film called ‘Mobsters’ which came out in 1991, wherein Mandylor played one of the four main leads.
He recalled rushing to the set early into filming in an effort to avoid being late when he went into the fourth trailer, assuming it was his.
“All of a sudden, I hear this booming voice behind me say, ‘And who are you?’. I turn around to see who it was, and it is Anthony Quinn sitting on a couch with his arms spread like an eagle staring at me,” Mandylor said.
Despite his embarrassment, the two struck up a lovely conversation about the movie and Greece, and the exchange ended almost as surreally as it began when Quinn stood up and walked towards Mandylor.
“I didn’t know what to do, he was just standing there with this big smile. I just grabbed him and hugged him and all I heard was ‘Ha ha ha! I’ll see you on the set.'”
The two shared a scene later that day where Mandylor, playing Frank Costello, kills Quinn’s character and the Mexican star sent a message at the end of the day to his trailer asking for his phone number.

Becoming Quinn’s “son”
A friendship blossomed between the two actors and Mandylor regularly went out with Quinn and his friends like Ricardo Montalban and Don Rickles.
The Greek Australian even recalled attending the wedding of one of Anthony Quinn’s sons, where he sat with one of his other sons, Danny, and his daughter-in-law Lauren Holly (a co-star of Mandylor’s on ‘Picket Fences’).
He stated Anthony Quinn gave a speech and at the end of it said, “And I’d like to welcome my fourth son, Costas Mandylor. Where are you? Stand up.”
“I didn’t know what to say because I was sitting next to his real son,” Mandylor said.
“I stood up and blew him a kiss, and he blew one back and said, “That’s my fourth son.'”
The actor admitted that he did not see him as much as he would have liked, not wanting to bother him, and roughly 12-14 years ago (over a decade after Quinn’s death in 2001) his widow Katherine reached out and told him her husband used to talk about him all the time.
“When she told me that, I just started tearing up,” Mandylor said, going on to state that his widow reiterated Quinn really did feel like he was one of his sons.
He had the chance to meet Katherine Quinn soon after that call at an event at Fox Studios in honour of the Mexican star, with the two hugging and her sharing stories Quinn used to say about Mandylor.
The Greek Australian remarked that reflecting on that time really hit home, particularly given his father Ioannis recently passed on 9 December last year, with him now cherishing even more the time he spent with both.
“My father was a quiet gentleman who loved Greek philosophy and clever Greek jokes and now he is gone. It still has not really sunk into me,” he said.
“If you enjoy people’s company and you admire them, especially the oldies who have so many stories and advice to pass on, spend as much time as you can with them.”

Breaking into America and making the best work of his life
Mandylor admitted there were nerves in trying to make it as an actor in America as an Australian, with not many having established themselves back then.
“I just did not think it was possible. I worked hard on my voice to make it very American because back then you could not get away with it,” he said.
“When I started eventually making these movies I was known as an American actor and not an Australian one. Then I had to prove myself over here, that I was Australian and that I could do other things.”
The actor is among a list of Aussie stars that broke through around that time in America, such as Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, and his brother Louis.
“I am really proud of them and the fact that I was also one of the actors who came from Down Under,” he said.
“A lot of actors can have good fortune. Sometimes you are discovered late and sometimes you are discovered early. I, now in my late fifties, believe I am doing the best work of my life, and I am still enjoying it.”

A rekindled love for Greece
Mandylor has had the pleasure in recent years of making some films in Greece, including one last year called ‘The Aegean’ where he plays an old Greek fisherman that forms a friendship with an immigrant.
“The highlight of that was not only the movie but in shooting it in Kythera. To be quite honest, I didn’t want to leave. It is an island full of villagers. It was just incredible.”
He also got to shoot a film in Athens recently titled ‘The Greek Job’, describing it as similar to ‘The Bourne Identity’.
The two experiences were both part of a rekindled love for Greece, which has come after starting a family and reaching a settled point in his life and career.
He recalled walking to the First Cemetery of Athens during one of his recent trips, which brought him closer to thinking he would like to be buried in Greece.
“My attachment to Greece is getting stronger and stronger. I have a two-year-old daughter, and she will learn our language and I will take her to Greek school in Greece.”