Armen Dzhigarkhanyan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Armen Dzhigarkhanyan
Армен Джигарханян Արմեն Ջիգարխանյան
Born	Armen Borisovich Dzhigarkhanyan (1935-10-03)3 October 1935 Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	14 November 2020(2020-11-14) (aged 85) Moscow, Russia
Citizenship	Soviet Union, Russia, United States
Occupation	Actor, theatre director
Years active	1955–2020
Awards

Armen Dzhigarkhanyan (born October 3, 1935 – died November 14, 2020) was a famous actor from the Soviet Union, Armenia, and Russia. He was born and grew up in Yerevan, Armenia.

Armen started acting in theaters in Yerevan. Later, he moved to Moscow to act on stage there. From the 1960s, he also appeared in many Armenian films. He became very well-known in the 1970s for his roles in popular Soviet movies. Some of these include The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers (1968) and The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979).

After acting for nearly 30 years at the Mayakovsky Theatre, Dzhigarkhanyan also taught acting at a film school called VGIK. In 1996, he even started his own drama theater in Moscow.

Armen Dzhigarkhanyan was one of the most famous Armenian and Russian actors. He appeared in more than 250 films, which is more than any other Russian actor!

Early Life and Beginnings

Armen Dzhigarkhanyan was born in Yerevan, which was then part of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in the Soviet Union. This was on October 3, 1935. His grandfather was a "professional tamada", which is a toastmaster at celebrations. His family came from Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.

Armen went to a Russian high school named after the famous writer Anton Chekhov. Before becoming an actor, from 1953 to 1954, he worked as an assistant to a camera operator at the state film studio called Hayfilm.

Acting Career

Theater Work

Becoming an Actor

In 1955, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan joined the Sundukyan State Academic Theatre. He studied acting there until 1958. Right from his first year, he began acting at the Stanislavski Russian Theatre of Yerevan. He stayed at this theater for over 10 years, until 1967.

At this theater, which was Armenia's only Russian theater, he played about 30 different roles. Some of his most important roles included Vanya Kudryash in The Storm and the Actor in The Lower Depths. From the very start, Dzhigarkhanyan showed he could play many different types of characters. He was good at roles in classic plays, modern plays, and works by famous writers like Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams.

In 1967, Dzhigarkhanyan moved to Moscow to work at the Lenkom Theatre. He started acting under the director Anatoly Efros. One of his notable roles there was playing Molière in The Cabal of Hypocrites.

In 1969, Dzhigarkhanyan joined Moscow's Mayakovsky Theatre. He worked there until 1996, becoming the theater's main actor for almost 30 years. He first played Levinson in The Rout. Later, he played Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire. Even though he often played main characters, he also took on many roles as villains.

His performance as Socrates in Conversations with Socrates in 1975 was highly praised. It made him one of the most exciting and powerful actors of his time. During the 1970s and 1980s, Dzhigarkhanyan acted less on stage and more in films. This made him famous to a wider audience across the Soviet Union. Even with fewer stage roles, each one he played was talked about. Some of his best roles from this time include Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Nero in Theater in the Time of Nero and Seneca.

Directing and Teaching

The Dzhigarkhanyan theater in Moscow

From 1989 to 1997, Dzhigarkhanyan taught at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). This is Russia's main film school.

In the mid-1990s, Dzhigarkhanyan decided to create a theater with his students from VGIK. In March 1996, he founded his own theater. It was first called "D" and is now known as the "Moscow Drama Theater headed by Armen Dzhigarkhanyan." His theater has put on many famous plays, like Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett.

Dzhigarkhanyan also directed plays for other theater groups. He played the General in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Gambler and the main character in Filumena Marturano at the Lenkom Theatre.

Film Career

Dzhigarkhanyan's first film role was in 1960 in a movie called Landslide. He really impressed people with his role as a physicist in Hello, That's Me! (1966). This movie made him nationally famous and started his very busy film career. His role as Usta Mukuch, an old blacksmith, in Triangle (1967) led to many more film roles in the years that followed.

He then appeared in several very well-known films. These included Captain Ovechkin in The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers (1968) and its sequel The Crown of the Russian Empire, or Once Again the Elusive Avengers (1971). The 1973 comedy The Men became one of the most famous Armenian films of that time. Today, there's even a statue of its main characters in central Yerevan.

By the early 1970s, Dzhigarkhanyan was one of the most popular Soviet film actors. He acted in over 200 roles, covering all kinds of movies. These included comedies, historical adventures, dramas, thrillers, and adaptations of books. He could easily move from fun entertainment to serious art films. In the five-part TV series The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979), he played a thief in law. This made him even more popular with the general public in the Soviet Union. He also had a main role in the Soviet-French film Teheran 43 (1981).

Personal Life

Armen Dzhigarkhanyan was married three times. His first wife was Alla Vanovskaya, an actress. Their daughter Yelena was born in 1964 and sadly passed away at a young age in 1987. His second partner was Tatyana Vlasova, also an actress. They lived together starting in 1967 when they moved to Moscow. Tatyana now lives in Dallas, Texas and teaches Russian. Dzhigarkhanyan often visited her. His third wife was 43 years younger than him.

Later Years and Passing

In his last years, Dzhigarkhanyan had some health problems. He was in the hospital several times between 2016 and 2018. He passed away in Moscow on November 14, 2020. The cause of his death was related to heart and kidney issues. Many important people, including the presidents of Russia and Armenia, sent their condolences.

Achievements and Recognition

Dzhigarkhanyan being awarded by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, 2010

Dzhigarkhanyan was one of the most popular and respected Russian actors of his time, both in films and on stage. Novaya Gazeta, a big Russian newspaper, called him a "distinct brand" in Russian theater and film. They even said his voice was "a separate living brand." Peter Rollberg, a professor who studies Slavic languages and film, said that Dzhigarkhanyan's characters often showed strength, humor, and a quiet inner power.

After other great Armenian actors of the Soviet era passed away, Dzhigarkhanyan remained the last major one.

In 2005, Armenia's president at the time, Robert Kocharyan, congratulated Dzhigarkhanyan on his birthday. He said that Dzhigarkhanyan's great popularity came from his talent and hard work. He also said that his art helped connect Armenian and Russian cultures. In 2010, Armenia's president Serzh Sargsyan called him "one of the prominent figures of the modern cinema" with "boundless talent and charm." Sargsyan added, "The Armenian nation is proud of you."

In 2012, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin also congratulated Dzhigarkhanyan. He called him "an outstanding actor and talented director" who greatly helped Russian culture grow over many years.

Film Record

Many sources say that Dzhigarkhanyan is in the Guinness World Records as the Russian actor with the most film appearances. As of 2013, it was suggested he had acted in more than 250 films (some say 300). However, the Guinness World Records website doesn't list this specific record by country.

Because he was in so many films, a famous Soviet Armenian composer named Aram Khachaturian once joked, "Whenever you turn on the iron, Dzhigarkhanyan is there!" Another actor, Valentin Gaft, wrote a funny poem about it: "There are less Armenians in the world, / Than there are films where Dzhigarkhanyan has appeared."

Awards and Honors

Soviet Union

• People's Artist of the USSR (1985)

Russia

• People's Artist of the RSFSR (1973)
• Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", III class (1995)
• Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", IV class (2005)
• Order of Alexander Nevsky (2006)
• Crystal Turandot (Хрустальная Турандот), Highest Theater Prize of Moscow (2010)
• Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", II class (2010)

Armenia

• People's Artist of the Armenian SSR (1977)
• Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots (1996)
• Honorary Citizen of Yerevan (2001)
• Order of Honor of Armenia (2010)

Selected Filmography

• Once Upon a Dog (Жил-был пёс, 1982) — The Wolf
• Formula of Love (Формула любви, 1984) — Count Cagliostro (played by Nodar Mgaloblishvili)
• Treasure Island (Остров сокровищ, 1988) — John Silver
• Cars (Тачки, 2006) — Doc Hudson (Russian dub)
• Up (Вверх, 2009) — Carl Fredricksen (Russian dub)
• Alisa Knows What to Do! (Алиса знает, что делать!, 2013–2016)

See also

In Spanish: Armén Dzhigarjani%C3%A1n para ni%C3%B1os