Vohid Qodirov

Vohid (Vahid) Qodirov was born on 1 October 1925 in Tashkent. During the Second World War he worked at an aircraft factory in Tashkent and took part in its amateur drama circle. After the war he graduated from the Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute.

From 1948 until his death in 1992, almost half a century, he worked at the Tashkent Theatre of Young Spectators (now the Youth Theatre of Uzbekistan). His first stage role was Klimka in the 1948 production of Ostrovsky's "How the Steel Was Tempered". He later played Mister Thomas (V. Lyubimov), Chiranchoq quyoncha (S. Mikhalkov), the ruler of Jurjon in Hamid Olimjon's "Oygul bilan Baxtiyor", Mansur in "Kim aybdor", Qovoqvoy and Konfetvoy in Pulat Mumin's plays, Sariboy in Gafur Gulyam's "Shum bola" and Ikrom in Alp Jamol's "Mehribonlar". He was known as a master of dramatic, comic, satirical and fairy-tale roles.

As a director he staged "Tayyorga ayyor" by E. Rahimov, "Suqatoy va Konfetvoy" by P. Mumin and Alp Jamol's "Mehribonlar" at the same theatre. According to the theatre portal teatr.uz, he took part in virtually every television play for children and young people made in his time, and was a regular on the programmes "Otalar so'zi — aqlning ko'zi", "Televizion miniatyuralar teatri", "Ekran xandasi" and "Shunchaki sarguzasht".

He made his film debut in 1958 in a small part in "Maftuningman" ("Ocharovan toboy"); his last known credit is the 1991 short film "Birinchi bo'sa", in which he played the lead, Dzhura-ata. Kino-Teatr.ru lists 21 film works. His best-known screen role is Sariboy in Damir Salimov's "Shum bola" (1977), based on Gafur Gulyam's novella; he was invited to the film after his success in the part on stage. He also appeared in "Osiyo ustida bo'ron", "Chinor tagidagi duel" and "Akmal va ajdaho". At the Uzbekfilm studio he voiced films dubbed into Uzbek.

In 1980 he was named People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR. Vohid Qodirov died in Tashkent on 8 May 1992.