Turgun Azizov

Turgun Azizov was born on 30 November 1934 in Tashkent. He finished school in 1953 and entered the drama and film faculty of the A. N. Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute. As a student he played Ferdinand in Schiller’s “Intrigue and Love”, and he graduated in 1956.

That same year, at the invitation of his teacher, the director Toshxo‘ja Xo‘jayev, he joined the Hamza Uzbek National Academic Drama Theatre and remained one of its leading actors for more than fifty years. On stage he worked alongside Abror Hidoyatov, Shukur Burxonov, Sayfi Olimov, Sora Eshonturayeva and Zaynab Sadriyeva. Among his notable roles were G‘ofur in Hamza’s “The Rich Man and the Servant”, Yo‘lchi in Oybek’s “Sacred Blood”, Ilyos in Aitmatov’s “My Poplar in a Red Kerchief”, Edmund and Othello in Shakespeare, and Ulugh Beg in “Mirzo Ulug‘bek”; the part of Montserrat brought him particular fame.

He came to the cinema in the mid-1950s: from 1956 he worked in dubbing, and in 1958 he played Bakir in Yo‘ldosh A‘zamov’s musical comedy “Maftuningman” (“Enchanted by You”). In all he appeared in more than thirty films, working with directors such as Yu. Agzamov, K. Yarmatov, Sh. Abbasov, D. Salimov and A. Khamraev, and he also took part in radio plays and television productions.

As a director he staged “Mirzo Ulug‘bek”, “Alisher Navoiy”, “Mehrobdan chayon”, “Chimildiq” and “Mashrab” (together with M. Abdullayeva). From 1980, without leaving the theatre, he taught at the institute; Mirzabek Xolmedov, Madina Muxtorova and Abdurahim Abduvahobov are named among his students.

In 1967 he became an Honoured Artist of the Uzbek SSR, and in 1974 a People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR. In 1977 he shared the USSR State Prize with the makers of the Hamza Theatre’s production of Kamil Yashen’s “The Dawn of the Revolution”. He received the Order “Mehnat shuhrati” (2001) and the Order “Fidokorona xizmatlari uchun” (2023). Turgun Azizov died in Tashkent on 22 January 2024, at the age of 89.