Sophocles Venizelos was the second-born son of "the father of modern Greece" Eleftherios Venizelos. He was born in Chania on November 3, 1894. During World War I he served as a Captain in the the Greek Army until he was elected to the Greek parliament as a member of his father's Liberal Party.
During World War II he became the Ambassador to the United States in 1941, representing the occupied Greek government in exile. He became a minister of the government in exile in 1943 and served briefly as Prime Minister from April 13 – 26 1944. At the end of World War II he served as Vice President of the Liberal Party and a minister in the first post-war government under Georgios Papandreou. In 1950 he once again served as Prime Minister of Greece from March 23 - April 15 1950 under Georgios Papandreou and again from Aug 21, 1950 to November 1, 1951 under Nikolaos Plastiras.
In 1961 he became a founding member of Papandreou's Center Union party, which he served until his death in 1964 which occurred while on a ferry from Piraeus to Chania. He is buried alog with his father in a hillside park in Akrotiri, Crete, Greece