Yayra Abdullayeva

Yayra Umarovna Abdullayeva was born on 14 August 1930. She graduated from the Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute in 1950. She spent nearly her whole career at the Uzbek National Academic Drama Theatre, and also worked in film and on radio.

She came to cinema in 1953 with the role of Gulbakhor in "Boy ila xizmatchi". Her parts include Dildar in "Opa-singil Rahmonovalar" (1954), Rano in "Stadionda uchrashamiz" (1955), Saodat in "Hamza" (1960), the wife of Ilyas-khan in "V chyornyx peskax" and Najimova in "Vozrast trevog" (both 1972), Kudrat's mother in "Olovli yo'llar" (1984) and the witch Surkhail in "Alpomish" (2000). In the 2000s she played grandmothers and mothers in Uzbek films such as "Kelgindi kuyov" (2005, Raykhon), "Shabbona", "Zumrad va Qimmat" and "O, Maryam, Maryam" (2012).

On stage her roles included Gulnor in Oybek's "Qutlug' qon" and Key in "O'g'irlangan umr". She took part in the Republic Radio programmes "Teatr mikrofon oldida" and "Bir aktyor teatri".

She was named People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1964 and received the Hamza State Prize of the Uzbek SSR in 1967. She was awarded the Order "Do'stlik" in 1998 and the Order "El-yurt hurmati" in 2011, and in 2010 received the M&TVA-2010 honorary prize for contribution to culture and the arts.

Yayra Abdullayeva died in Tashkent on 14 May 2019.