Grecia's Biography
Name: Grecia Dolores Colmenares Mieussens.
Date of birth: December 7, 1962.
Place of birth: Central Hospital of Valencia, Venezuela.
Stats: height 5'6'', weight 116 lb.
When Grecia was born, her parents, Grecia Mieussens and Lisandro Ernesto Colmenares, called her Lola. Grecia went to one of the oldest schools in Valencia - "Lisandro Ramires School". Until she turned five years old, Grecia lived with her parents, sisters Carmen Victoria, Ana Teresa, Maria Andreina, and brother Jose Gregorio, but then her parents decided to get a divorce.
When Grecia turned five, her parents got a divorce right after her mother gave birth to Grecia's little brother. When father left, her mother had to take care of five children alone. Nevertheless, she decided to adopt one more child, Andreina. Today, Andreina is the only child who still lives with Grecia's mother because other children are already married. Andreina's mother was the vest friend of Grecia's mother, but she died when Andreina was a little girl. Andreina was born in 1978 and she is the fifth sister that life gave to Grecia.
When she was ten, Grecia moved to Caracas where she lived together with her aunt Odessa. It was not allowed to watch television in that house, but Grecia was interested in everything that was about TV world. She wished to become an actress so bad that finally her mother allowed Grecia to play her first role in school theater.
At 11, Grecia successfully passed casting on television. When she was filming telenovela "Passiones", magazine "Vanidades Continental" wrote: "Telenovela "Passiones" was written by Ligia Lezama, mother of famous actress Mayra Alexandra from Venezuela. Grecia knew her from their childhood and Mayra was the one who helped Grecia to enter the world of television."
Mayra Alexandra, Grecia, and Jose Luis Rodrigez appeared in telenovela "Angelica", written by Manuel Munies Rico from Argentina. That's how Grecia's career started. And her fame reached not only her home country, but many other countries.
When Grecia was filming telenovela "Rosalinda", she received an offer to play the main role in telenovela "Topacio" (1984). This telenovela became Grecia's breakthrough, it just had to be successful. They had many famous actors from Venezuela and leading male role was played by young actor Victor Camara. This telenovela was translated at the best TV time and was very popular in Venezuela and then in Latin America. Few years later, in 1990, telenovela received Telegatto award in Italy.
"Topacio" helped Grecia to get the role in telenovela "Crystal". However, she also received another offer from another side of America from independent producer Jose "Pepe" Crusilia. It was the best offer Grecia had ever received.
Everybody was against her accepting the role, saying that foreign actresses are not popular in that country. But Grecia already made a decision: her desire to learn more about another culture, salary of $25,000 a month, and funny stories about Argentina her father used to tell her helped her to make this decision. She left Venezuela in 1985.
Telenovela "Maria de Nadie" was very successful not only in Argentina, but also in all other countries it was showed in. This was her first work with Jorge Martinez. Their first successful work together.
While working on this telenovela, Grecia not only achieved professional success but also found true love. She calls him "prince". She chose Marcelo Pilegri, successful business from Argentina who was born in Brazil. They got married in 1986. After her first failed marriage with actor Henry Zakka, losing her first child, and relationship with journalist Santiago Pumarolla, she finally found happiness.
Creator of the telenovela rented a house for Grecia in luxury district of Buenos Aires, San Isidro. After the wedding, Grecia decided to buy it. Few months later, in March 1987, producer Raul Lecuona offered her a new role in telenovela called "Grecia". Before they started to film "Grecia", Grecia and her husband went to Miami for a short honey moon. Telenovela failed in Buenos Aires and Israel.
Then there was "Passiones" in 1988 where she played with Raul Taibo. Her character of poor young girl who fell in love with her master and saved his life brought many positive reviews. Together with the crew they decided to celebrate the success. Grecia was successful with Raul Taibo not only in telenovelas, but also in photonovelas. He was her partner in "Zingara".
Her new telenovela was supposed to be called "Diabla", but they decided to call it "Rebelde". It was the first telenovela that was partially filmed in foreign countries. It had a very large budget and became "super novela". First few episodes were filmed in United States. Telenovela was successful not only in Argentina, but also in Europe, especially Italy and Spain. In this telenovela for the first time Grecia played a role of wealthy woman who was in love with the lawyer. But this love had to overcome a lot of troubles.
After one more success, it was decided to film a telenovela collaborating with Italy, Israel, and Spain. Grecia Colmenares participated in a new italo-argentinian project "Manuela" (1991). It was her second work with Jorge Martinez. It was very expensive project, creators spend a lot of money while filming on the sets of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Rome, Sicily, and Sestriere. Plus there were many famous actors, such as Maria Rosa Gallo, Marita Baliesteros, Nelly Prono, and Georgio Mastrota. Premier of telenovela was held in Argentina on March 11 and two months later it was translated in Italy where it was very popular and received a "Teleggato" award in 1992. Thanks to "Manuela", Grecia became famous in France, Germany, East Europe, and Arabia. At that time, Grecia was five months pregnant. Her son was born on September 4, 1992.
While she was visiting Spain, she received an offer to film a new telenovela together with Spanish company TELECINCO. The producer was Raul Lecouna and telenovela was called "Primer Amor". Grecia partner became Gabriel Corrado. Grecia returned to Argentina to give birth to her child. Then, she together with her son and husband flew to Tenerife to film "Primer Amor". Later they returned to Argentina to continue filming at Sonotex.
In 1993, Grecia filmed "Milagros" (Mas Alla del Horizonte) where she played two roles, mother and daughter, Maria and Milagros. The leading male role was played by Osvaldo Laport who also played two characters of father and son, sergeant Enrique and Katriel. Rumors said that one of the roles was supposed to be played by Gina Lolobrigida, but because of the problems with producer Omar Romay the role was given to Luisa Kuliok, who got $1,000,000 salary. Total budget of the telenovela was $10,000,000. Telenovela was translated in Italy and then in Argentina. Telenovela reached 30 points of rating in 1994 and received three Martin Fierro awards. Later, TELEVISA invited Grecia to work on a new telenovela together with Osvaldo Laport. He was supposed to play a character of a driver who falls in love with blind girl played by Grecia.
Rumors started to appear in press, everybody was talking about Grecia's divorce with her husband. It continued till 1995, but Grecia did not react. Her new telenovela with Osvaldo was not popular and she decided to take a two year break. She returned back to work and played with Jorge Martinez in telenovela "Amor Sagrado" written by Maria Jose Campoamor and Ana Montes and filmed by MEDIASET (Italy), DELTAVISION, AND TELEFE. Telenovela was filmed from October 1996 and until April 1997. Everybody thought that it was going to be successful, but when it was translated the ratings were very low. Another problem was that the premiere was a year later after the filming was completed. Telenovela had 4.2 points of rating and few weeks later disappeared from the list of the best because its rating never reached 6 points.
Later, Grecia decided to stay in Argentina and her husband began to work on new telenovela where Grecia was supposed to play with Juan Duartes. But none of the channels agreed to translate the telenovela and project was cancelled.
Some time later, the main character of children's' program "Chiquitas" got married and Grecia was invited to replace her. Her fans were very happy to finally see her working again.