Actor Jafar Vali Dies at 83

Veteran actor, writer and theater director Jafar Vali, passed away on Saturday, December 17, in Tehran Clinic Hospital. He was 83.

Although he was suffering from heart disease and respiratory disorder, Vali was directing a play for the 35th Fajr International Theater Festival to be held in late January. Due to Tehran’s worsening air pollution earlier this month he was hospitalized on December 8.

Vali was scheduled to stage his play ‘Whisper in My Sound Ear’ which was about the last days of two old men after the festival at City Theater of Tehran, ILNA reported.

He was rehearsing with two other veteran actors Hormoz Hedayat and Iraj Rad, both 71.

A graduate of acting from the University of Tehran, Vali started acting and directing in theater in 1957.

During his acting career he played in over 30 movies and TV series including ‘The Cow’ directed in 1969 by Dariush Mehrjui, ‘Tight Spot’ by Amir Naderi (1974), ‘Captain Khorshid’ by Nasser Taqvai (1987), ‘Spring in Fall’ by Mehdi Fakhimzadeh (1988) and ‘The Reward of Silence’ (2007) by Maziar Miri and in the TV series ‘Hezardastan’ (1987-1999) by Ali Hatami and ‘The Enigma of Shah (2010-2016) Mohammad Reza Varzi.

He made over 30 teledramas shown on state TV from 1960 to 1977. He also worked as a voice-over artist in cinema for 10 years and taught acting in the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran until 1987.