In Greece its name probably does not say much in many people, but in America it was very popular. Of course, the Stefanos Miltsakakis belonged to those cases where his presentation exceeds the reputation of his name. Because as soon as you see him, he will immediately remind you of a familiar face.
And indeed it was. Specifically, he was his opponent Jean-Claude Van Damme In the cinema. He was the bad Russian who "fought" in 5 movies with the French star. However, the cinematic "Russian" or "Eastern-European" was Greek and specifically by Evros. But not many people knew the Greek giant, the "miracle of nature" - as they called him - until his death a year and a half ago.
It was in 1972 when the Miltsakaki family took the road abroad for a better life. His father was a tailor and 12-year-old Stefanos, from the small village of Provatona in Evros - who did not even have cars on the streets - was surprised in front of a big city with skyscrapers, cars and rhythms completely different from those he had learned.
His family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and for the first time shared the same small apartment in a slum, along with another family of immigrants from Greece. The first years were difficult and the fact that he did not know English made it more difficult. After all, he himself had admitted in an interview how difficult it was to adapt to the new reality.
And things got worse when school started. There he experienced absolute racism, as a child of immigrants. He made efforts to integrate into the new environment, while never telling his family what he was going through. He experienced the devaluation of diversity on his own.
Little Stefanos was involved in sports, which he liked very much. In the last grade of high school he was savagely attacked by his classmates and such were the blows that he had to be hospitalized for days in order to recover from his injuries. This story was for him a life lesson, which played a decisive role in his later life.
And somewhere there the martial arts come into his life. Besides, he was the right height: tall and stocky, he soon distinguished himself as a wrestler and became a world champion in "Pagration", which combines wrestling with boxing. He is now the well-known Greek and his successes are playing in the press. He becomes popular at school and loved by his classmates. Things had changed for him.
The wrestling coach at his school suggested that he take up the sport. He became a member of the school team, and his classmates somewhere there stopped seeing him as a "foreigner".
From this particular sport he was nicknamed in America, "Stefanos Pagration". Growing up, Stefanos was a kind-hearted "giant" and always kind, but he defied danger and pain. So, after all, his own people remember him.
They say that when man makes plans, God laughs. Did the same apply in the case of Stefanos Miltsakakis? The immigrant from Evros was focused on training and as he grew up he developed into an athlete with amazing performance and many distinctions in the USA.
In 1984 he returned to his homeland, Athens, to train with the Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Team. They say that at that time they considered him one of the big favorites for their medal Olympic Games. However, his fate played a bad game. During training he suffered a ruptured cruciate ligament as a result of which he was unable to follow the rest of the mission. And the dream of the Olympic Games to end awkwardly and ignominiously.
But maybe life had other plans for him, judging by what awaited him a little below. Shortly afterwards, Stefanos Miltsakakis moved from North to South Carolina. There, due to his physical qualifications and skills in martial arts, the offer to play in the cinema arose. And it paved the way for a career in action movies that focused on street fights and "cages".
It was in 1989 when she first met Jean-Claude Van Damme in the movie "Cyborg". For the next two years he starred in "Shooters" and "Weekend at Bernie's", a comedy that "breaks" box office and helps him become well known in America.
And somewhere there he decides to move to Los Angeles and try his luck in his wonderful world. Hollywood. Of course, no one said that it was easy there and they were waiting for him on the road paved with rose petals. But he himself was a fighter and did not give up. Maybe it was his ignorance of how difficult it is to become an actor and establish himself in the field, as he himself had confessed.
With his presentation reminiscent of an Eastern European, the producers found in his face the ideal "bad" Russian, at a time when in the action movies the case of "the good American versus the bad from the Soviet Union" played a lot. You see, it was the Cold War that imposed such forms of expression.
But it was not just his appearance that convinced the producers. It was his physique that excited Van Damme to rival him in the movies. Rather, beating the "giant" Stefanos in the end gave greater dimensions to his victories.
However, he did not like this confinement in this role. And he quickly realized that he no longer wanted to play the bad guy. So he decided to stop. And to dedicate himself to what he knew very well, in "Pagration".
Even in his short career in cinema, he did not stop doing martial arts. He competed in "cages" as he was trained in other arts such as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA.
As he once said: "Fighting is a part of my life. From a young age I struggle to survive in a world full of violence. What if I'm scared when I fight in the cages? Yes, I'm afraid. But what I mean by fear is different from what everyone means. For me, fear is like an alarm system, which prepares me for battle, it is a powerful energy that gives me life ".
In recent years he has maintained a large gym in California, which was visited by many movie celebrities. Stefanos Miltsakakis died in January 2019 at the age of 60.
His wish was to be buried in his village in Evros, next to his father. As it happened.