TEHRAN-The veteran Iranian actor Atila Pesyani passed away at the age of 66 on Friday after a long period of illness.

Pesyani was suffering from cancer in the past years. Recently he had traveled to France and while there, he was hospitalized as his conditions worsened. Unfortunately, the treatment did not work, and the Iranian art community lost the prominent actor, Mehr reported.

Born in 1957 in Tehran, he was the son of actress Jamileh Sheykhi. Later, he married actress Fatemeh Naghavi. His two children, Khosrow and Setareh, followed their parents’ career and both are actors now.

A graduate of theater directing and acting, he began his acting career in theatrical plays in 1977 and four years later, he had his first appearance in a movie. In the meantime, he played in TV series as well. During over 45 years of professional career, he played in more than 40 plays, 75 movies, and 50 series.

Besides acting, he also directed several plays, and served as an assistant director and casting director in a number of movies. He was also a veteran in production and script supervising.

Pesyani received several nominations at different national events including the Best Supporting Actor Golden Statue at the House of Cinema Celebration for the movies “Two Women” (1998), “The Burnt Generation” (1999), “The Last Supper” (2001), and “Who Killed Amir?” (2005) as well as a nomination for the Crystal Simorgh's Best Leading Actor for “In Cold Blood” (1994) from the Fajr International Film Festival. He won the Best Supporting Actor Golden Statue at the 5th House of Cinema Celebration for “Water and Fire” (2001).

Some other well-known films in which he performed are “The Hidden Half” (2001), the 1st and 2nd part of “Ceasefire” (2005, 2014), “Throughout the Night” (2010), “The President's Cell Phone” (2011) and “The Wooden Bridge” (2011).

“The First Night of Peace” (2006), “Goodbye Child” (2012), and “Madineh” (2014) are some of his successful series among others.

His last work was the play “Qajari Coffee,” which he had written and directed, and staged at the main hall of the City Theater in Tehran in 2018.

The title referred to the bizarre ways of murder used by some Qajar royals, in which a suitor or a political opponent they wished to eliminate, was served a cup of coffee containing poison. In his play, Pesyani had localized Shakespeare’s famous tragedy ‘Hamlet’.

SS/