Armen Dzhigarkhanyan

Armen Dzhigarkhanyan[lower-alpha 1] (Armenian: Արմեն Ջիգարխանյան; pronounced [dʒiɡɑrχɑnjɑn]; Russian: Армен Джигарханян;[lower-alpha 2] born 3 October 1935) is a Soviet, Armenian and Russian actor.

Armen Dzhigarkhanyan
Dzhigarkhanyan being awarded by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010
Born (1935-10-03) 3 October 1935
Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, Soviet Union
CitizenshipSoviet Union, Russia, United States[1]
Occupationactor, theatre director
Years active1955–present[2]
Awards

Websitewww.dzigartheater.ru

Born and raised in Yerevan, Dzhigarkhanyan started acting in the academic and Russian theaters of the city, before moving to Moscow to continue stage acting. Since 1960, he appeared in a number of Armenian films. He became popular in the 1970s with the various roles he portrayed in Soviet films like The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers (1968), its sequel The Crown of the Russian Empire, or Once Again the Elusive Avengers (1971) and The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979). After almost 30 years on the stage of the Mayakovsky Theatre, Dzhigarkhanyan taught at VGIK and in 1996 he founded his own drama theater in Moscow.

Dzhigarkhanyan, one of the most renowned living film and stage Armenian and Russian actors, has appeared in more films than any other Russian actor with more than 250 appearances.

Early life

Armen Dzhigarkhanyan was born in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union on 3 October 1935.[5] His paternal grandfather, a "professional tamada", came from an Armenian family from Tbilisi, Georgia's capital.[2] He graduated from a Russian high school named after Anton Chekhov. Between 1953 and 1954, he worked as camera operator's assistant at the state-run Hayfilm studio.[6]

Career

Theater

Actor

In 1955, Dzhigarkhanyan was admitted to the Sundukyan State Academic Theatre of Yerevan. He studied in director Armen Gulakyan's (hy, ru) class until 1958.[3] Beginning in his first year at the Sundukyan Theatre, he started acting at the Stanislavski Russian Theatre of Yerevan. He remained there for over 10 years, until 1967.[6][7] At Armenia's only Russian theater, he played around 30 roles, most notably as Vanya Kudryash in The Storm by Alexander Ostrovsky, Sergey in An Irkutsk Story by Aleksei Arbuzov, Actor in The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky.[7] "From the beginning of his stage career, Dzhigarkhanyan has demonstrated an awesome versatility, succeeding in a wide variety of roles in the classical and contemporary repertory, including Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, and modern Russian authors.[3]

In 1967, Dzhigarkhanyan moved to Moscow to make a career at the Lenkom Theatre.[3] He started acting under directorship of Anatoly Efros, however, they worked together for a brief period. Dzhigarkhanyan portrayed Molière in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Cabal of Hypocrites. Following Efros's departure, Dzhigarkhanyan was given more roles, but he didn't wish to continue acting in a theater without the director he came for in the first place.[7]

In 1969, Dzhigarkhanyan joined Moscow's Mayakovsky Theatre by Andrey Goncharov's recommendation.[3] He worked there until 1996 and for almost 30 years, he was "its leading actor".[2] He first appeared in the role of Levinson in The Rout by Alexander Fadeyev. His later roles include Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire. Since most of his roles were protagonistic, he moved to portray several antagonistic roles.[7]

Dzhigarkhanyan's portrayal of Socrates in Edvard Radzinsky's Conversations with Socrates in 1975 was acclaimed by critics and made him one of the "most interesting and strongest actors of the contemporary scene." During the 1970s and 1980s, Dzhigarkhanyan appeared less frequently on stage and more frequently in films and became known to the wider Soviet public. Even with decreased number of appearances on stage, Dzhigarkhanyan's every role became an object of discussion. The finest roles from this period include Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, Lord Bothwell in Robert Bolt's Vivat! Vivat Regina!, Nero in Edvard Radzinsky's Theater in the Time of Nero and Seneca and others.[7]

Director
The Dzhigarkhanyan theater in Moscow

Between 1989 and 1997, Dzhigarkhanyan taught the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), Russia's state film school.[3]

In the mid-1990s, Dzhigarkhanyan decided to create a theater that would bring together his students at VGIK. In March 1996, Dzhigarkhanyan founded his own theater named "D"[3] and currently named "Moscow Drama Theater headed by Armen Dzhigarkhanyan" (Московский драматический театр под руководством Армена Джигарханяна). His theater has staged a number of famous plays, including Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape and Harold Pinter's The Homecoming.[7]

Dzhigarkhanyan has also directed combination companies and has played the roles of General in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Gambler and the main character in Filumena Marturano by Eduardo De Filippo at the Lenkom Theatre.[7]

Film

Dzhigarkhanyan made his film debut in 1960 film Landslide (Obval) as Akop. He "impressed viewers with his inspired portrayal of physicist" in Frunze Dovlatyan's Hello, That's Me! (Barev Yes Em, 1966) as Artem Manvelyan. It "gave him national renown and initiated an extremely prolific screen career." Usta Mukuch, the role of an old blacksmith he created in Triangle (Yerankyuni, 1967) directed by famed Armenian director Henrik Malyan, paved the way for dozens of films in later decades.[7]

He later appeared in several iconic films, including as captain Ovechkin in Edmond Keosayan's The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers (1968) and The Crown of the Russian Empire, or Once Again the Elusive Avengers (1971). The 1973 comedy The Men, directed by Edmond Keosayan, became one of the most iconic Armenian films of the late Soviet period and today, a statue of its leading characters stands in central Yerevan.[8] "By the early 1970s, Dzhigarkhanyan had become one of the most popular Soviet film actor who appeared in more than 200 roles, covering all genres from situational comedy to historical adventure, psychological drama, thriller, and quality literary adaptation, moving effortlessly from trivial entertainment to sophisticated art." In the five-part TV miniseries The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979), starring all-time favorite Vladimir Vysotsky, Dzhigarkhanyan played a thief in law, which made he more popular to the general Soviet public.[3][6] He also appeared in a leading role in the joint Soviet-French Teheran 43 (1981) alongside to Claude Jade as his mysterious young mistress and Curd Jurgens as his lawyer.[6]

Personal life

Dzhigarkhanyan has married three times. In the early 1960s, he secretly married Alla Vanovskaya, an actress at the Stanislavski Russian Theatre of Yerevan. Their daughter, Yelena, was born in 1964 and died at age 23 in 1987 of suffocation at sleep, because she left the car engine running.[9] His second wife Tatyana Vlasova, was also an actress at the Stanislavski Theatre in Yerevan. They never officially married, but they started living together in 1967, when they moved to Moscow together. Tatyana now resides in Dallas, Texas and works as a Russian language teacher at a university. Dzhigarkhanyan often visits her.[10] His third wife is 43 years younger than him.

Recognition
Dzhigarkhanyan (left) at an ITAR-TASS press-conference, 2012

Dzhigarkhanyan is one of the most popular[11][12] and renowned living Russian actors, both in films and theatre.[13][14] Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia's largest weeklies, described Dzhigarkhanyan as a "distinct brand" in Russian theatre and film and his voice as "a separate living brand".[15] According to Peter Rollberg, Professor of Slavic Languages, Film Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs, "Dzhigarkhanyan's characters usually are distinguished by stoicism, irony, and a quiet inner strength, irradiating a rough charm that has only grown with age."[3]

With the deaths of Frunzik Mkrtchyan (1993), Khoren Abrahamyan (2004) and Sos Sargsyan (2013), Dzhigarkhanyan remains the last major Armenian actor of the Soviet era.[16]

In his birthday congratulation in 2005, Armenia's second president Robert Kocharyan stated that Dzhigarkhanyan's "great popularity" is "due to [his] talent and devoted work". Kocharyan further said that "[his] art has become a peculiar standard of mutual enrichment of Armenian and Russian cultures."[17] In 2010, Armenia's current president Serzh Sargsyan described the artist as "one of the prominent figures of the modern cinema" who has "boundless talent and charm". Sargsyan stated that "The Armenian nation is proud of you."[18] In 2010, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev awarded Dzhigarkhanyan with the Order For Merit to the Fatherland and stated:[19]

For decades, you've given the audience you talent and the appreciative audience responds to you with sincere love. You've played a number of memorable roles, each of which is an example of mastery of the profession. Today, inexhaustible creative energy, the ability to integrate talented people to help you in your work with the company of one of the most popular Moscow theaters in the education of the younger generation of domestic actors."

In 2012, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin congratulated Dzhigarkhanyan on his birthday and described him as "an outstanding actor and talented director" who "over many years of service to the stage and screen made a huge contribution to the development of Russian culture."[20]

Record

A number of sources claim that Dzhigarkhanyan is included in Guinness World Records as the Russian actor with most film appearances (as of 2013), suggesting that he has played in more than 250 films[21][22][23][24] (300 according to RIA Novosti).[25] However, the Guinness World Records website does not provide such data by country.[26] In reference to the large number of films in which he has appeared, prominent Soviet Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian once stated, "[Whenever] you turn on the iron, Dzhigarkhanyan is there!"[25][27] Actor Valentin Gaft has written an epigram in an humorous reference to his large number of appearances: "There are less Armenians in the world, / Than there are films where Dzhigarkhanyan has appeared" (Гораздо меньше на земле армян, / Чем фильмов, где сыграл Джигарханян.)[25]

Awards
Soviet Union
Russia
  • People's Artist of the Russian SFSR (1973)[28]
  • Order For Merit to the Fatherland, III class (1995)[29]
  • Order For Merit to the Fatherland, IV class (2005)[30]
  • Order of Alexander Nevsky (2006)[5][31]
  • "Crystal Turandot" (Хрустальная Турандот), Highest Theater Prize of Moscow (2010)[4]
  • Order For Merit to the Fatherland, II class (2010)[32]
Armenia
  • People's Artist of the Armenian SSR (1977)[6][28]
  • Mesrop Mashtots Medal (1996)[5]
  • Honorary Citizen of Yerevan (2001)[33]
  • Order of Honor of Armenia (2010)[34]

Selected filmography
Year Film Role Note
1966 Hello, That's Me! (Здравствуй, это я!) Artyom Manvelyan
1967 Triangle (Треугольник) Usta Mukuch
1968 The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers (Новые приключения Неуловимых) captain Ovechkin
1970 The Seagull (Чайка) Ilya Afanasievich Shamraev
1971 The Crown of the Russian Empire, or Once Again the Elusive Avengers (Корона Российской Империи, или Снова Неуловимые) captain Ovechkin
1973 The Men (Мужчины) Ghazaryan
1975 Hello, I'm Your Aunt! (Здравствуйте, я ваша тётя!) Judge Criggs
1977 When September Comes (Когда наступает сентябрь) Levon Pogosyan
1978 The Dog in the Manger (Собака на сене) Tristan
1979 The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (Место встречи изменить нельзя) Hunchback
1980 Rafferty (Рафферти) Tommy Farichetti
1981 Teheran 43 (Тегеран 43) Max Richars
1982 Gikor (Гикор) Bazaz Artem
1986 The Dolphin's Cry steward
1988 The 13th Apostle David
1989 Two arrows. Stone Age Detective (Две стрелы. Детектив каменного века) Head of the tribe
1990 Passport (Паспорт) Semyon Klein
1992 Weather Is Good on Deribasovskaya, It Rains Again on Brighton Beach (На Дерибасовской хорошая погода, или На Брайтон-Бич опять идут дожди) Katz
1992 White King, Red Queen (Белый король, красная королева) Makeev
1993 Dreams (Сны) Doctor
1995 Shirli-Myrli (Ширли-мырли) Kozyulski
2008 The Best Movie (Самый лучший фильм) God's secretary
2008 God's Smile or The Odessa Story (Улыбка Бога, или Чисто одесская история) Filipp Olshansky
2009 O Lucky Man! (О, счастливчик!) Grandfather Ramiz
2009 Hamlet. XXI Century (Гамлет. XXI век) gravedigger
Voice
gollark: They're very different cultures. There are more factors than "has technology" or not.
gollark: So extreme poverty is not obviously bad but suicide *is* somehow obviously bad?
gollark: Wow, great justification!
gollark: Removing diseases? Yes.
gollark: Extreme poverty down, literacy and whatnot up, etc.

References
Notes
  1. Alternative spellings include Dzhigarkhanian and Jigarkhanyan.[3][4]
  2. full name in Russian: Армен Борисович Джигарханян Armen Borisovich Dzhigarkhanyan[3]
Citations
  1. Chorekchyan, Khachatur (2005). Армену Джигарханяну 70 лет. Russkaya Amerika (in Russian). Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2014. Армен Джигарханян имеет сейчас гражданство России и США.
  2. Shalaeva, G.P., ed. (2003). "Джигарханян Армен Борисович". Кто есть кто в мире [Who's Who in the World] (in Russian). Moscow: Olma-Press. pp. 463–4. ISBN 9785812300883.
  3. Rollberg, Peter (2008). Historical dictionary of Russian and Soviet cinema. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. pp. 200–201. ISBN 9780810862685.
  4. "Veteran Armenian Actor Wins Top Theater Prize in Moscow". ArmeniaNow. 9 July 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  5. Ջիգարխանյան Արմեն (in Armenian). Yerevan State University Institute for Armenian Studies. Archived from the original on June 22, 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  6. Արմեն Ջիգարխանյան (in Armenian). AV Production. Archived from the original on June 22, 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  7. Джигарханян, Армен Борисович (in Russian). Krugosvet. Archived from the original on June 22, 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  8. "Yerevan: "Men" Statue". armenianmonuments.org. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  9. Alekseyev, Ivan (4 October 2010). Тайная жена Джигарханяна. Express Gazeta Online (in Russian). Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  10. "Вечная любовь" Армена Джигарханяна в Израиле. mignews.com (in Russian). 4 February 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  11. Shaland, Irene (1987). Tennessee Williams on the Soviet stage. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. p. 16. ISBN 9780819161093. The part of Stanley was played by Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, a very popular movie and theatre actor.
  12. Lawton, Anna (2004). Imaging Russia 2000: Film and Facts. Washington, DC: New Academia Publishing. p. 193. ISBN 9780974493435. ...such as an emigre taxi driver played by the popular actor Armen Dzhigarkhanyan...
  13. Армен Джигарханян озвучит мультипликационного пенсионера. Argumenty i Fakty (in Russian). 5 March 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2014. ...один из самых знаменитых актеров отечественного театра и кинематографа, Армен Борисович Джигарханян.
  14. Армен Джигарханян: "Общество порой не принимает элиту". Pravda.ru (in Russian). 13 November 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2014. Он один из самых любимых артистов России, уважаемый старейшина российского театра и кино.
  15. Армен Джигарханян: Я понял, почему идут в депутаты. Novaya Gazeta (in Russian). 8 October 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2014. Армен Джигарханян – это уже своеобразный бренд в нашем театре и кино, даже если не учитывать, что он занесён в книгу рекордов Гиннеса. А голос Джигарханяна является отдельно живущим брендом...
  16. Mkrtchyan, Abrahamyan, Sargsyan, and Dzhigarkhanyan are widely considered the greatest Armenian actors of the Soviet period; for instance, this article lists the four actors and director Frunze Dovlatyan as stars of the Soviet era Armenian film industry. Davtyan, Robert (20 October 2007). Վաստակի արժանի գնահատում. Hayastani Hanrapetutyun (in Armenian). Retrieved 14 January 2014. Թատրոնում եւ կինոյում նա հանդես է եկել մեծ դերասանների եւ ռեժիսորների աստղաբույլի հետ՝ Մհեր Մկրտչյան, Սոս Սարգսյան, Խորեն Աբրահամյան, Արմեն Ջիգարխանյան, Ֆրունզե Դովլաթյան եւ ուրիշներ։
  17. "Robert Kocharyan congratulated Armen Jigarkhanyan". Public Radio of Armenia. 3 October 2005. Archived from the original on 15 January 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  18. "Armen Jigarkhanyan awarded Order of Honor". Republic of Armenia. 3 October 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  19. "Дмитрий Медведев вручил Армену Джигарханяну орден "За заслуги перед Отечеством" II степени". Rossiyskaya Gazeta (in Russian). 3 October 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  20. "Moscow Mayor congratulates People's Artist of the USSR Armen Dzhigarkhanyan on his birthday". Moscow City Government. 3 October 2012. Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  21. "Armen Jigarkhanyan marks 76th birthday anniversary". Tert.am. 3 October 2011. Archived from the original on 15 January 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2014. Armen Jigarkhanyan is in the Guinness Book of Records as the Russian actor that has played the largest number of film roles.
  22. Армен Джигарханян: "Имею право не нравиться". Argumenty i Fakty (in Russian). Retrieved 13 January 2014. Это подтверждено записью в Книге рекордов Гиннесса: на счету самого часто снимающегося актёра России Армена Джигарханяна более 250 ролей.
  23. "300 лиц Армена Джигарханяна" (in Russian). Channel One Russia. 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2014. ...внесенный в «Книгу рекордов Гиннеса» как самый снимаемый.
  24. Армен Джигарханян. Временно доступен (in Russian). TV Tsentr. 23 September 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2014. В Книге рекордов Гиннеса Армен Джигарханян упоминается как самый снимаемый российский актер: более 250 ролей в кино и телефильмах.
  25. Армен Джигарханян - актер, избалованный великолепной драматургией. RIA Novosti (in Russian). 3 October 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2014. Джигарханян стал первым из российских актеров, который вошел в Книгу рекордов Гиннесса по количеству сыгранных ролей: в его банке более трехсот кинематографических работ.
  26. "Most screen credits for a living actor". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  27. Melkyants, Georgiy (30 September 2005). Армен Джигарханян: "Игра под копирку не для меня". Izvestia (in Russian). Retrieved 31 March 2014. "Утюг включишь - и там Джигарханян" - эту шутку приписывают Араму Ильичу Хачатуряну, который вас очень любил.
  28. Джигарханян Армен Борисович (in Russian). kinosozvezdie.ru. 22 May 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  29. ""О награждении орденом "За заслуги перед Отечеством"" III степени Джигарханяна А. Б." (in Russian). Kremlin.ru. 3 October 1995. Archived from the original on 24 April 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  30. "Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 1 декабря 2005 года № 1380 "О награждении орденом "За заслуги перед Отечеством" IV степени Джигарханяна А. Б"" (in Russian). Kremlin.ru. 1 December 2005. Archived from the original on 24 April 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  31. Губернатор Новгородской области Михаил Прусак награжден высшейРоссийской общественной наградой (in Russian). novgorod.ru. 2 November 2005. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  32. "Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 3 октября 2010 года № 1203 "О награждении орденом "За заслуги перед Отечеством"" II степени Джигарханяна А. Б." (in Russian). Kremlin.ru. 3 October 2010. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  33. "Honorary citizens of Yerevan". Yerevan Municipality Official Website. Archived from the original on 15 January 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  34. "Armenian President confers Order of Honor on Armen Jigarkhanyan". PanARMENIAN.Net. 18 November 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  35. "Алиса знает, что делать!". VokrugTV.
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