She later returned to BU and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in performing arts. She contended with pressures within her patriarchal Greek family and around her, 'in a neighborhood where ethnic discrimination, particularly against Greeks, was routine.' ĭukakis was an alumna of Arlington High School in Arlington, Massachusetts, and was educated at Boston University where she majored in physical therapy, earning a BA, which she made use of when treating patients with polio during the height of the epidemic. As a girl, she dominated in sports and was a three-time New England fencing champion. She had a brother named Apollo, six years her junior.
Her parents were Greek immigrants her father a refugee from Anatolia and her mother from the Peloponnese. Olympia Dukakis ( Greek: Ολυμπία Δουκάκη) was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on June 20, 1931, the daughter of Alexandra 'Alec' ( née Christos) and Constantine 'Costa' S.
