Sent to London to read for the Bar, Cacoyannis gravitated instead to the Old Vic stage school. He had a short stage career under the name "Michael Yannis" before deciding he wanted to direct films.
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 176-180. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959Founded the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in 2003; an institution for the performing arts.Was one of four children.His father, Panayotis, was a lawyer and member of the Cyrpus legislative and executive councils who was knighted by the British in 1936.
An aimless Englishman finds he has a small inheritance on a Greek island. His joyless existence is disturbed when he meets Zorba, a middle aged Greek with a real lust for life. As he discovers the earthy pleasures of Greece, the Englishman finds his view on life changing.