Sanat Devonov

Sanat Devonov (Sanʼat Devonov) was born on 9 May 1932 in the Khonqa district of the Khorezm region. In 1946 he began his stage career at the Ogahiy Khorezm Regional Musical Drama Theatre and worked there as an actor until 1984; sources credit him with more than a hundred roles in the theatre.

From 1963 to 1967 he was a stage director of the Khorezm theatre. In 1973 he graduated from the acting faculty of the Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute. On stage he played Hamlet, Navoi, Neznamov in Ostrovsky's Guilty Without Guilt, Askar in Arshin mal alan, Tahir in Tahir and Zuhra, Beruni, Ibn Sina and Ashiq Gharib, and also appeared in plays by Ulmas Umarbekov.

He made his film debut in 1955 as Sherali in Krushenie emirata and played Yulchi in Qutlug' qon in 1956. His roles include Sharif in Maftuningman (1958), Juma-Ishaq in Qizilqum (1968), Aziz Rizaev, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic, in Uzoq-yaqin yillar (1976) and Khojaev in Olovli yo'llar (1984). He also appeared in Sevgi haqida afsona, Cho'loq darvish, Alpomish and Buyuk Amir Temur, and played a friend of Ali Baba in the Soviet-Indian film Adventures of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. His last listed works date from the 2010s.

He combined acting with management: director of the film actors' studio in 1984-86, director of the Abror Hidoyatov Uzbek State Drama Theatre in 1986-87 and director of the Hamza Drama Theatre in 1987-93. Russian-language sources add that he also headed the Khorezm Musical Theatre and the Qahhor Republican Satire Theatre.

He was made People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1976, having been named Honored Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1964. In 2001 he received the Order Mehnat shuhrati, as well as the Medal for Distinguished Labour and honorary certificates of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR. He died in April 2016. A documentary about him, Sanatdagi Sanat, was filmed in Khorezm and Tashkent.