Ezzatollah Entezami, ‘Mr. Actor,’ Passes Away
Ezzatollah Entezami, a renowned actor of Iranian cinema and theater, passed away on Friday, the 26th of Mordad, at the age of 94, after several years of homebound life and illness.
He had been active in Iranian cinema and theater for more than six decades.
Mr. Entezami can be called the father of acting in Iran, an actor from the generation of Jamshid Mashayekhi, Mohammad Ali Keshavarz, Ali Nassirian, and Davoud Rashidi, who over several decades worked with the country’s finest filmmakers.
Davoud Rashidi passed away in 2016.
The Iran Students News Agency (ISNA), which followed up on and confirmed the news of “Mr. Actor’s” passing from the Iranian House of Cinema, states that Ezzatollah Entezami passed away on Friday morning at Bahonar Hospital in Tehran.
Ezzatollah Entezami was born on June 20, 1924, in Tehran. In 1972, he graduated from the Tehran Faculty of Fine Arts.
Entezami professionally entered the cinema in 1969 by acting in the film “The Cow,” directed by Dariush Mehrjui, and in that very first film created a character that is now part of the collective memory of Iranians.
Throughout several decades of artistic activity, Ezzatollah Entezami worked with the finest Iranian directors, from Ali Hatami and Nasser Taghvai to Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Among the most famous films of this actor, one can mention these works: “Mr. Halo,” “Without Ta,” “The Postman,” “The Cow,” “Sar Takhan,” “Sadegh Kordeh,” “Haji Washington,” “Grand Cinema,” “Kamalolmolk,” “Hamoon,” “The Tenants,” “Nasserdin Shah, the Actor,” “The Day of the Incident,” and “A House on Water.”
In several sources, the name Ezzatollah Entezami is recorded as the first Iranian actor and performer who was able to win an international award: he received the Best Actor Award from the Chicago International Film Festival for his role in the film “The Cow.”
In the month of Esfand of year 1394, Ezzatollah Entezami sent a letter to Hassan Rouhani, the President, asking him to resolve the issue of the house arrest of Mehdi Karroubi, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and Zahra Rahnavard.
Source: Radio Farda
