Hikmat Latipov

Hikmat Latipov (Khikmat Saidovich Latypov) was an Uzbek Soviet stage and film actor and theatre director. He was born in Bukhara in 1900, was orphaned at the age of four and was raised by an uncle.

In 1922 he joined a drama troupe formed in Bukhara and in 1922–1924 worked as an actor and director at the Bukhara drama theatre. In 1924 he was sent to study in Moscow and graduated from a theatre studio in 1927.

From 1927 to 1961 he was an actor of the Hamza Uzbek Drama Theatre (now the Uzbek National Academic Drama Theatre). In 1932–1933 he worked as a director at the Uzbek drama theatre in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

He appeared in films from 1937 at the Uzbekfilm studio, beginning with «Klyatva» (The Oath). He mostly played old men and villagers, among them the lead role of Achil-Buva in «Chinara» (1973) and Grandfather Sadyk in «Three Poplars on Plyushchikha» (1967). His filmography has over thirty titles from 1937 to 1979.

He was named People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1950 and also received the medal «For Labour Distinction». Reference works note the psychological depth of his characters, his expressive stage speech, mime and make-up. He died in Tashkent on 3 February 1981.