Khosrow Shakibai


Khosrow Shakibā'í or Khosro Shakibaei was an Iranian stage and cinema actor. He ranks amongst the most accomplished actors of his generation.
Khosrow Shakibai was born to Colonel Ahmad Shakibāi and Ms Farideh Khātami. His father, who was an army Colonel, died from cancer when Khosrow was only fourteen. Khosrow studied acting at Faculty of Fine Arts of University of Tehran. He began his stage career in 1963 and branched out his activities into film dubbing in 1968. Shakibā'í initiated his film acting in 1982 with Khatt-e Ghermez, directed by Masoud Kimiai. He had played in seven feature films when the film director Dariush Mehrjui offered him the title role of Hamoun, a film that over time has achieved a cult status.

Career

Shakibai's performance in Hamoun marked a turning point in his career. He received a Crystal Simorgh at Fajr International Film Festival for his portrayal of Hamoun, a literary intellectual who gradually loses his touch with reality and becomes entrapped into an obsessive and destructive conflict with his estranged wife whom he deeply loves. Shakibai played also in some major television series. He won a Crystal Phoenix for Kimiā directed by Ahmad Reza Darvish.
Shakibai found also a considerable following for his voice, brought about through publication of the recordings of his readings of poems by such luminaries of the modern Persian poetry as Forough Farrokhzad and Sohrab Sepehri.
Shakibai is credited for helping to raise the stature of performing arts in Iran by the end of the 1980s, when the authorities in charge tended to neglect this area of cultural activities.
He married twice. From his first marriage with the actress Tānyā Joharí he has one daughter named Poupak, and from his second marriage with Parvin Koush'yār one son named Pouria.

Death

Khosrow Shakibai died at 6 am on July 18, 2008, of liver cancer in Pārsiān Hospital in Tehran. Earlier it had been reported that Shakibai's death had been a consequence of his heart failure. It has further been reported that on October 5, 2007, Khosrow Shakibai had been admitted to a hospital for suffering from diabetes, however on his explicit request the press had withheld this information from public.
On Sunday, July 20, 2008, the body of Khosrow Shakibai was laid to rest in The Artists Section of Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery in Tehran. His funeral procession began at 9 am from Vahdat Hall, Hafez Street, in Tehran.

Shakibai's feature films

Awards