The only child of Panayiotis and Sophia Tzavalas, Trifon was born in Athens in 1935. After graduating from the 8th Gymnasium for Boys, he enlisted in the Greek Air Force for his military service. Once out of the service, he worked next to the great film directors Giorgos Tzavelas and Vassilis Georgiadis who produced some of the classic films during the golden age of Greek cinema in the 50's and 60's. Then Trifon decided he needed more film training and went to Germany, then to Montreal, and finally to Hollywood where his father's brother, William Chavalas, was the artistic director at 20th Century Fox designing film sets and movie theaters. Chavalas designed and decorated some of the finest movie theaters built in Los Angeles in the 1940's and 1950's. One of his monumental works is the Byzantine art of the church of Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, just before Trifon arrived in Los Angeles, his uncle suddenly died. In those early days, Trifon struggled to make a living while studying film direction at Columbia College. As a thesis project, he researched and wrote "The History of Hellenic Cinema". That thesis germinated into the 6-volume encyclopedic work, The History of Hellenic Cinema, which is now in this website. It took him practically the rest of his life to assemble the information for this publication. In the meantime, for relaxation, he wrote poems (a selection is included here).
He and his wife Maureen raised one son, Panayiotis, and dote on their three grandchildren: Sophia and the twins Triphon and Talia. Tryphon passed away in 2013 in Los Angeles.

Due to his untimely illness, which to a great extent paralyzed Trifon in 2008, his friend Takis Demopoulos undertook the effort to edit and complete the publication. Zafiris Gourgouliatos assisted with the publication and web presentation.

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© Copyright 2012, Trifon Tzavalas and the Hellenic University Club of Southern California. Work may not be reproduced without permission by Trifon Tzavalas or the publisher. Quoting is permitted with a reference to the source and a notice to the publisher at info [AT] huc.org. Use this e mail also to inform the editor of any errors or omissions.