He expanded his talents by directing ancient Greek tragedies such as Hecuba, Antigone, The Phoenissae, Prometheus Bound, Oedipus at Colonus, as well as Seán O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, August Strindberg's The Father and Brecht's Mother Courage.

In 1940, he married the actress Katina Paxinou, and together they appeared in many productions at the National Theatre of Greece in Athens, which was founded in 1930 by Minister of Education Georgios Papandreou.

In 1946, he went to Hollywood to appear in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious with Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains.

His other films include Siren of Atlantis (1949) with Maria Montez, Boy on a Dolphin (1957) with Sophia Loren, and Land of the Pharaohs (1955) with Joan Collins.

He appeared on Broadway in Electra with the Marika Kotopouli company in 1930-31 and in Oedipus Tyrannus with the National Theatre of Greece in 1952.