Jamshid Mashayekhi Passes Away

Jamshid Mashayekhi, a veteran actor of Iranian cinema and theater, passed away at 9 PM on Tuesday, April 2, in Tehran. Reports indicate that this prominent Iranian actor had been hospitalized at Erfan Hospital during the Nowruz holidays. Jamshid Mashayekhi was born on December 6, 1934, in Tehran and joined the newly established Dramatic Arts Administration in 1957. He began his artistic career fifty years ago by acting in the play 'The Doctor's Duty' by Pirandello and made his film debut in 1963 alongside Fakhri Khoroush in the short film 'The Snake Cover' directed by Hejir Daryoush. He acted in about one hundred films and 70 telefilms and television series from the late 1950s onwards. One of his significant performances was playing the role of 'Bozorg Agha' in Bahram Beyzai's play 'Heritage' at the 25th of Shahrivar Hall in December 1967. Some of his most famous films include 'Brick and Mirror' by Ebrahim Golestan, 'Ghaisar' by Masoud Kimiai, 'The Cow' by Dariush Mehrjui, 'Mahi Asal' directed by Fereydoun Gole, and 'Soteh Delan' and 'Kamalolmolk', both works of Ali Hatami. After the 1979 revolution, Mashayekhi served as the head of the theater department for a time. In 1984, he won the Crystal Simorgh for Best Actor for his roles in the films 'Dahoudi Flowers' and 'Kamalolmolk' at the Fajr Film Festival. He is survived by a daughter and two sons. In recent years, some of Mashayekhi's statements had made headlines. In 2017, during the Critics and Writers Association awards ceremony, he criticized the excessive attention critics paid to his contemporary, Ezzatollah Entezami.