Armen Cigarhanyan

Armen Cigarhanyan — Biography

Armen Cigarhanyan, internationally better known as Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, was an Armenian-born Soviet and Russian actor, born on 3 October 1935 in Yerevan and who died on 14 November 2020 in Moscow. He worked across theatre, film, television, and dubbing, and was also active as a theatre director and drama teacher. He began performing at academic and Russian-language theatres in his native Yerevan before relocating to Moscow to pursue a stage career. From 1960 onward he took on roles in numerous Armenian films, and gained wide popularity in the 1970s for parts in Soviet films such as The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers, its sequel The Crown of the Russian Empire, or Once Again the Elusive Avengers, and The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed. After close to three decades on the stage of the Mayakovsky Theatre, he taught at the VGIK film institute and, in 1996, established his own drama theatre in Moscow. He was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1985. Over a career spanning more than 250 screen credits, he became one of the most prolific actors in Russian film history.