Asad Ismatov

Asad Ismatov was born in 1907 in Andijan, in the Ittifoq mahalla. In 1924 he joined the drama troupe in Andijan, a theatre revived at the time under the name “Umid”. He stayed there until the mid-1930s, working both as an actor and as a director.

On the Andijan stage he played Ferdinand in Schiller’s “Intrigue and Love” and the mayor in Gogol’s “The Government Inspector”, and in 1928 Bahrom in “Farhod and Shirin”. Working with Muhiddin Kari-Yakubov was an important experience: in Kari-Yakubov’s production of “Arshin mal alan” he played Suleiman. Ismatov himself staged “The Servant of Two Masters”, “Indoors” and “Justice”.

In 1936 he moved to Tashkent at the invitation of the Tashkent film studio. In 1937 he played one of the leading roles, the farmhand Azim, in Aleksandr Usoltsev-Garf’s “The Oath”, the first sound film of Uzbek cinema. Umar in “Azamat” (1939), Rizaev in “Asal” (1940) and the teahouse keeper Ali in Yakov Protazanov’s “Nasreddin in Bukhara” (1943) followed. His role as Babakhan in Nabi Ganiev’s “Tahir and Zuhra” (1945) brought him wide success. On the stage of the Muqimiy theatre he played Khoja in Yashin’s “Nurkhan” and Qora Botir in Abdulla’s “Tahir and Zuhra”, and at the Hamza theatre Husayn Bayqara in the play “Alisher Navoi”.

His role as Sultan Husayn Bayqara in Kamil Yarmatov’s film “Alisher Navoi” (1947) won a Stalin Prize of the second degree in 1948. He then played the foreman Jabbar-ata in “Daughter of Fergana” (1948) and Bobo Mehnat in “Pakhta-Oi” (1951). Ismatov received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour on 6 March 1950 for services to Soviet cinema, and on 24 February 1950 he was named People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR.

Asad Ismatov died in Tashkent on 17 February 1953.