Razzoq Hamroyev

Razzoq Hamroboyevich Hamroyev was born on 30 November 1910 in the village of Tezguzar near Bukhara, in what is now the Shofirkon District of the Bukhara Region; some Soviet reference works, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia among them, give 15 May 1910 and the town of Perovsk instead. After school in Tezguzar he studied at the Men's Institute of Education in Tashkent, acting in amateur productions while still a student. On graduating in 1930 he was assigned to Namangan to teach Uzbek language and literature.

At his Namangan school Hamroyev started a drama club, directing its productions and acting in them himself. The club grew into a city theatre: in 1931 he was among the founders of the Namangan Musical Drama and Comedy Theatre, where he worked until 1945 as an actor and director, becoming chief director and artistic director in 1934. He learned directing from Mannon Uyghur in Tashkent and in 1940 attended directing courses at the Moscow Art Theatre. His Namangan productions included Komil Yashin's “Two Communists” (1932) and Schiller's “Intrigue and Love” (1939).

His film career began with Nabi Ganiyev, who cast him as the chronicler Nazim in “Tahir and Zuhra” (1945) and then in the title role of “The Adventures of Nasreddin” (1946). Playing the poet in Kamil Yarmatov's “Alisher Navoi” (1947) earned him a Stalin Prize, second class, in 1948. He returned to Navoi on stage: for the poet's 525th anniversary in 1968 he staged the musical drama “Navoi in Astrabad” at the Muqimiy Theatre and played the lead himself.

Hamroyev moved to Tashkent in 1945, and from 1946 until his death he worked at the Muqimiy Uzbek Theatre of Musical Drama and Comedy as an actor and director, serving as its chief director from 1959 to 1976. His roles there included Muqimi in Sobir Abdulla's play of that name (1954), Melivoy in Hamid Ghulam's comedy “Toshbolta in Love” (1961), Ferdinand, Malvolio, Truffaldino, Pantalone and Hamza. As a director he staged “Farhod and Shirin”, “Layli and Majnun”, “Golden Lake”, “Nurkhon”, “Guli Siyoh”, “Fergana Before Dawn”, “Toshbolta in Love” and “Secrets of the Paranja”. His work did much to shape Uzbek musical drama, and he also directed for regional theatres, including the one in Osh.

In 1954 he graduated from the directing faculty of the Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute and began teaching directing there the same year, becoming a professor in 1978. He went on acting in films: al-Biruni in “Avicenna” (1956), Muqimi in “Furqat” (1959), Usto Sharif in the comedy “The Whole Mahalla Is Talking About It” (1960), Farman Shah in “The Star of Ulugh Beg” and the rope-walker Toshtemir in “The Tightrope Walkers” (both 1964). His Mirza Karim Qutidor in Yuldash Agzamov's “Days Gone By” (1969) won him the Hamza State Prize of the Uzbek SSR in 1970, a prize he had also received in 1964. Among his later roles were Ibn Iraq in “Abu Rayhan Biruni” (1974) and Sheikh Hazrat in the serial “Fiery Roads”.

He was named People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1950 and People's Artist of the USSR in 1969. He received two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour, two Orders of the Badge of Honour and the Order of Friendship of Peoples (1980), and sat as a deputy in the seventh convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR.

Razzoq Hamroyev died in Tashkent on 5 May 1981 and was buried in the Chigatay cemetery. His son Javlon Hamroyev became an actor and his daughter Guli Hamroyeva a ballerina; both were named People's Artists of the Uzbek SSR. In 2003 he was posthumously awarded Uzbekistan's Order “For Outstanding Merit” (Buyuk xizmatlari uchun).