Maryam Yakubova

Maryam Yakubova (Yoqubova) was born on 19 October 1909 in Bukhara, in the family of a cotton-mill worker. She lost her parents early; as a child she was taken with an aunt, a singer and dancer, to the court of the Emir of Bukhara, and later, married off young, she escaped her husband's family. In 1924 she went to Moscow with a group of young people from Uzbekistan and studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East, at the People's House of Enlightenment and on film-acting courses (Boris Chaikovsky's studio), finishing her film-acting training by 1929.

Her first screen appearance dates from 1925, a small part in «The Ice House»; she later appeared in films by the director Adrian Piotrovsky («Rodnye», «Dama Tref»). In 1929 she returned to Tashkent and joined the Hamza Theatre (then the republican touring theatre); in 1932 she did a placement at Meyerhold's theatre. From 1933 to 1939 she worked at the Sverdlov Uzbek Musical Drama Theatre (the predecessor of the Alisher Navoi Grand Theatre), playing Ruzvon in «Gulsara» and Mehin Banu in «Farhad and Shirin».

In 1939 she moved to the Muqimiy Theatre of Musical Drama and Comedy, where she was the first performer of the title role in Hamza's comedy «The Pranks of Maysara» and played Countess Diana in «The Dog in the Manger». From 1941 until she retired she was back at the Hamza Theatre (now the Uzbek National Academic Drama Theatre), creating about a hundred parts: Gertrude in «Hamlet», Emilia and Bianca in «Othello», Ogudalova in «The Dowerless Bride», Popova in «The Bear», Anna Andreyevna in «The Government Inspector», Feklusha in «The Storm», Voynitskaya in «Uncle Vanya», and Khonzoda and Mastura in Hamza's «Bai i batrak» and «Kholiskhon». During the Second World War she performed for soldiers at the front with Uzbek concert brigades.

She began working at Uzbekfilm in 1953, her first notable part being Khonzoda in «Bai i batrak» («The Rich Man and the Farmhand»). Oyposhsho in Shukhrat Abbasov's comedy «The Whole Neighbourhood Is Talking About It» (1960) and Uzbek-oyim in Yuldash Agzamov's «Days Gone By» (1969) made her one of the republic's best-loved screen actresses and entered the golden fund of Uzbek cinema. She also worked at the Tajikfilm studio, in the satirical film magazine «Nashtar», in television plays and in the multi-part film «Fiery Roads»; in 1969 she played her famous Maysara again in the television film «The Pranks of Maysara». Her last film roles date from the mid-1980s.

She took part in Uzbek radio's literary, dramatic, humorous and theatre programmes from the station's early days, and from the 1970s read fairy tales to children on the radio, becoming known as the country's «radio nanny».

She was named People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1955, and received the Order of the Badge of Honour, medals and honorary certificates of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR. She died in Tashkent on 2 February 1987 and is buried in the Bukharan Jewish cemetery (Allon district). By a decree of the President of Uzbekistan of 28 May 2026 she was posthumously awarded the Order of Labour Glory (Mehnat shuhrati). An exhibition of her family and professional relics is held every five years, on her anniversaries.