Jamshid Mashayekhi (Actor)

This seasoned actor of the Iranian cinema started his career in 1960s. Before that, he was performing in theatrical plays and was quite famous. His importance is because he has already appeared in two movies made in late 1960s concurrent with qualitative development of the Iranian cinema: The Cow (Dariush Mehrjui) and Qaysar (Massoud Kimiaei). He continued to appear in many important films over years such as Curse (Nasser Taqvai), Prince Ehtejab (Bahman Farmanara), Sute-Delan (The Heartbroken Ones) (Ali Hatami) and The Spring (Arbi Avanessian), thus becoming one of the most creditable Iranian actors in the 1970s. It was customary that when theatrical performers switched to movies, they were more respected than other actors. Mashayekhi started his movie career almost simultaneous with Ezzatollah Entezami, Mohammad Ali Keshavarz, Ali Nassirian, and Davoud Rashidi and they have appeared in many films. Due to his appearance and more powerful acting, Mashayekhi became famous sooner than the others. However, he had been declining after the revolution and most of that is due to his wrong choices. During the past 30 years, he has appeared in all kinds of films. He is a regular actor of worthless melodramas where he has been mostly cast as a sympathetic father. He has been marginalized during the past decade, unlike Entezami, and few directors have used him. The most memorable among his latest works include The Blank Paper (Nasser Taqvai) and A Small Kiss (Bahman Farmanara). However, Mashayekhi is a national icon of the Iranian cinema. Therefore, cinema authorities have commemorated him over the preceding years on various occasions. Jamshid Mashayekhi was also commemorated by UNESCO on the sidelines of a program conducted by the international body in Paris. A year before, UNESCO had arranged another commemoration ceremony for Ezzatollah Entezami in Paris.