Ulmas Alikhodzhayev

Ulmas Safoyevich Alikhodzhayev was born on 30 June 1941 in Urgench, in what is now Khorezm Region. He trained as an actor at the Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute and graduated in 1964.

His first screen role came while he was still a student: in 1963 he played Abdulla Nabiyev, the first Komsomol member in Uzbekistan, in “Five from Fergana”. From 1964 he worked at the Uzbekfilm studio and appeared in more than forty of its feature and television films.

He became widely known as Otabek in Yuldash Agzamov’s historical film “Days Gone By” (1969), based on the novel of the same name by Abdulla Qodiriy. In Shukhrat Abbasov’s television series “Fiery Roads” (1977–1984) he played the poet and playwright Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy. His other parts include Ali Qushchi in “Ulugbek’s Star”, Muzaffar in “Natasha-khanum” and Yodgor Hamidovich in “Shiddat”.

Besides Uzbekfilm he acted at the Tajikfilm, Kyrgyzfilm and Gorky studios, and after the Soviet Union ended he appeared in films made in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Russia. From 1996 he worked as a head of department at the Uzbekkino company.

He was named Honoured Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1969 and People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1983, and in 1975 received the Uzbek SSR Lenin Komsomol Prize.

Alikhodzhayev died in Tashkent on 25 September 2015, aged 74. By presidential decree of 28 May 2026 he was posthumously awarded the Order of Mehnat Shuhrati (“Labour Glory”); it was handed to his family on 29 May.