Actor, Activist Sos Sargsyan Dies at 84

YEREVAN—Renowned Armenian actor, playwright, People’s Artist and political activist Sos Sargsyan passed away Thursday. He was 84.

Sargsyan was born in Stevanavan, in the Lori Region of Armenia and moved to Yerevan in 1948 and worked as an actor in Armenia’s Youth Theater.

He graduated from the Yerevan Fine Arts and Theatre Institute in 1954. From 1954 he performed at the Sundukyan Drama Theatre of Yerevan.

In 1992 he established and until his death in 2013 headed the Hamazkayin Theater.

From 1997 to 2005 he was the director of Yerevan Institute of Theater and Cinema. From 2006 until his death he served as a member of the board of directors of the institute.

Throughout his brilliant career, Sargsyan has starred in 20 Armenian films and has worked in the Russian cinema, most notably in the 1972 film, Solaris, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.

In 2000, His Holiness Karekin II awarded Sargsyan the Armenian Apostolic Church’s St. Sahag-St. Mesrob medal, honoring the actor’s extraordinary 70-year career in the arts.

He is famous for his roles in such Armenian classics at “Gikor,” “Dzori Miron,” “Khatabala” and “Menk enk, Mer Sarere.”

After Armenia’s independence Sargsyan also played a crucial role in the political life of the country as an activist and intellectual. He was a candidate for president in 1991, Armenia’s first presidential elections, representing the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. In 2009 he was elected to parliament as a member of the ARF bloc.