Amin Turdiyev

Amin Turdiyev was born on 10 August 1910 in Tashkent. In 1927 he finished the Tashkent teacher-training college. He began on stage in 1929 at the Mobile Workers' Theatre, played at the Hamza Uzbek Drama Theatre from 1931 and joined its main company in 1932–1933.

In 1934–1937 he worked as an actor, director and artistic head of the Samarkand and Namangan regional theatres. In 1939–1951, 1952–1963 and 1967–1978 he was an actor and director at the Hamza Theatre. In 1947 he studied on a directing course attached to the Moscow Art Theatre; he was chief director of the Andijan theatre in 1951–1952 and artistic head of the Tashkent Youth Theatre (TYuZ) in 1963–1967.

As an actor he was known for villains and character parts and for his careful work on appearance, movement and speech. His roles included Zargarov in Abdulla Qahhor's play on sore teeth («Og'riq tishlar»), Husayn Boyqaro in «Alisher Navoiy», Genghis Khan in Mirsaid Shayxzoda's «Jaloliddin» (during the war), Shadrin in Pogodin's «The Man with a Gun», Prokhor Khrapov in Gorky's «Vassa Zheleznova» and Abdusalom in Vohidov's «The Golden Wall».

As a director he staged at the Hamza Theatre «The Flight of the Eagle» by I. Sulton (1942, with I. Bersenev), «The Mother» (1943), «A Risky Joke» (1944) and «Novbahor» (1949, with D. Abidov) by Uyg'un, «Shamsiqamar» by M. Abliyev (1955), Nazim Hikmet's «A Tale of Turkey» (with A. Ginzburg), «Unforgivable Sins» by I. O'ktamov and other plays. For many years he hosted the radio programme «Tabassum».

In cinema he appeared in seven films between 1939 and 1967, including Kadyrkul-minbashi in «The Rich Landowner and the Farmhand» (1953), Azimov in «Meet Me at the Stadium» (1955) and Beklyarbek in «Furkat» (1959). He was made People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1955 and received the medal «For Distinguished Labour». In 1977, as a member of the company of Kamil Yashen's «Dawn of the Revolution» at the Hamza Theatre, he won the USSR State Prize. He died on 13 March 1978.