His body will be laid to rest in Mashhad, northeastern Iran, at the request of his family, Safaei’s long-time friend and actor Asghar Hemmat told Mehr News Agency, though the date of the burial ceremony is undetermined.
“Sadeq was a lonely guy and lived alone through his life, but he will not be alone anymore when he is buried alongside his mother in Mashhad,” an emotional Hemmat said.
A faculty member at the Theater Department in the College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, since 2000, Safaei first appeared on the silver screen in 1989, in Hamid Samandarian’s drama, ‘All the Temptations of the Earth’.
In a message on Saturday, the University of Tehran offered condolences over the passing of the Iranian actor who enjoyed “a rich career of film and stage performances while educating many Iranian youths and authoring numerous articles on the art of drama over the years.”
Iranian actors and actresses, Mehdi Soltani, Shohreh Soltani, Borzou Arjmand, and Elham Paveh-Nejad took to social media to pay tribute to Safaei.
Safaei was best known for his role in Ebrahim Hatamikia’s 1992 war drama ‘From Karkheh to Rheine’, for which he won an Honorary Diploma for Best Supporting Role at the 11th Fajr Film Festival.
He again won the award at the 29th edition of the festival, as well as a Special Jury Prize for the role he played in Hamid Farrokh-Nejad’s film, ‘The Crimson Journey’ (2000).
‘The Glass Agency’ (1998), also directed by Hatamikia, and ‘Girl’s Dormitory’ (2004), by Iranian filmmaker Mohammad-Hossein Latifi, were among other works in which Safaei appeared.
Safaei also enjoyed a glorious career as a stage actor and director, most notably performing in Homa Rousta’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov's play ‘The Seagull’ (1988) and Samandarian’s ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle,’ a play by Bertolt Brecht, the same year.
He also won the Best Writer Prize for ‘Hell Valley’ at the Third Iran Dramatic Literature Award in 2009.
Honar Online extends its condolences on the death of this Iranian cinema actor to his family and the country's cinema community.