Acclaimed Armenian actor Sos Sargsyan dies at 83

September 27, 2013 - 09:20 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Prominent Armenian actor, director and writer Sos Sargsyan died aged 83 following complications from lung disease.

Sos Sargsyan was born October 24, 1929 in Stepanavan in northern Armenia, at the time part of the Soviet Union. He moved to Yerevan in 1948 and started to perform at the Theater of the Young Spectator. He graduated from the Fine Arts and Theater Institute in 1954 as an actor. Between 1954 and 1991 he performed at the Sundukyan State Academic Theatre of Yerevan. In October 1991, a month after Armenia's independence from the Soviet Union, Sargsyan took part in the first presidential election in independent Armenia. He was nominated by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. In 1991 he established the Hamazgayin (Pan-National) Theater, which he headed until his death. From 1997 to 2006 he was the rector of the Yerevan Cinema and Theatre Institute.

Sargsyan started his career of acting in 1947. He first performed in David Copperfield. Some of his most notable roles include Don Quixote, Lago, King John, King Lear, etc. He starred in over 40 films, mostly Armenian. Besides Armenian films he has starred in a number of Russian films, most notable of which is Solaris (1972), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.