Mashayekhi, who was among the golden generation of actors of pre-revolutionary Iran, was once called by veteran actor Parviz Parastui one of the top five actors of Iranian cinema along with Mohammad-Ali Keshavarz, Ali Nasirian, Davud Rashidi and Ezzatollah Entezami.
He began his acting career in Luigi Pirandello’s The Doctor’s Duty in 1957. Gholam-Hossein Saedi hired him to act in his Upper and Lower Case A and he also played a role in The Nest of Jackal and Viper directed by Nasirian. He also collaborated with director Hamid Samandarian in staging Jean-Paul Sartre’s Morts sans sepulture.
He made his acting debut in cinema in 1964 with Ebrahim Golestan’s The Brick and the Mirror, which was reviewed in Venezia Classici at the 75th edition of the Venice International Film Festival in 2018.
His role as Khan Dai in Masud Kimiai’s 1969 cult film Qeisar won him fame.
Mashayekhi had an exemplary career, acting in about 100 movies and over 50 TV series. In his youth, he played the roles of powerful, middle-aged men, and in his middle age, he was selected to star as mature men. He also used to play the roles of charismatic figures in his senior years.
Collaboration with Iran’s new wave filmmakers such as Dariush Mehrjui, Nasser Taqvai and Bahman Farmanara also enriched Mashayekhi’s career in pre-revolutionary Iran. However, he remained in eclipse in that cinema, which preferred protagonists played by such actors as Behruz Vosuqi, Mohammad-Ali Fardin and Nasser Malakmotiei.
Mashayekhi and his contemporaries, including Keshavarz, Nasirian, Rashidi and Entezami, were highly regarded in Iran’s post-revolution films.
He starred in the title role in Ali Hatami’s Kamalolmolk, which won him the Cyrstal Simorgh for best actor in 1984 at the Fajr Film Festival, which was established to celebrate the Islamic revolution.
In 1985, director Rasul Sadr-Ameli’s drama Chrysanthemum brought him one more Cyrstal Simorgh at the festival.
In 2007, he was honored as an eternal figure of Iranian cinema during the Sixth Eternal Figures Gathering.
Many Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Culture Minister Seyyed Abbas Salehi, sent messages of condolence to Mashayekhi’s family.
“By his fine performances in films and society, this stylist artist of stage and screen left a good name of himself and a brilliant career,” Rouhani wrote in his message.
Mashayekhi is survived by his daughter, Naghmeh, and his sons, Sam and Nader, who is a world-renowned musician.
Source: Tehran Times