Obidjon Yunusov

Obidjon (Obid) Yunusov was born on 20 November 1934 in Tashkent, in the family of the composer Yunus Rajabiy. He graduated from the Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute in 1956 and joined the Hamza Uzbek Drama Theatre (now the Uzbek National Academic Drama Theatre) the same year. He worked there until 1996 and played more than a hundred roles on its stage. One of his best-known stage parts was Utkuriy in the play «Parvona»; a filmed version of the production was made in 1983.

He appeared in more than thirty feature films. His most famous screen role is the groom Yunus in Eduard Khachaturov's comedy «To'ylar muborak» (Russian title «Podaryu tebe gorod», 1978). He also worked with Melis Abzalov on «Chinor tagidagi duel» (1979) and «Armon» (1986), and appeared in «Kelinlar qo'zg'aloni» (1985), «Maysaraning ishi» (1989), «Shaytanat» (1998), «Fatima va Zuhra» (2005), «Ta'ziyadagi to'y» (2010), «Fidoyilar» (2011) and others. He also worked in dubbing for many years; Uzbek Wikipedia lists him among the masters who contributed to the art of dubbing at Uzbekfilm.

He was named Honoured Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1970 and later People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR, and received the Hamza State Prize of the Uzbek SSR. In independent Uzbekistan he was awarded the Order «Mehnat shuhrati» in 2003.

Obidjon Yunusov died in Tashkent on 21 September 2015. By a presidential decree of 28 May 2026 he was posthumously awarded the Order «For Outstanding Merit» for his contribution to culture and the arts.