Melik Dadashev

Melik Dadashev — Biography

Melik Yusif oghlu Dadashov was born on 7 June 1924 in Baku. He began training in medicine, but left his studies unfinished because of the Second World War; after being wounded by a shell-shock injury in 1943 he was sent back from the front and, following a long recovery, served as a musician in military units. After the war, in 1945, he joined the Azerbaijan State Theatre of Young Spectators as an actor, and in 1950 he graduated from the Mirzaagha Aliyev Theatrical Institute before going on to work at the Azerbaijan State Academic National Drama Theatre. His stage career effectively began in 1946, when, at 23, he took a leading role at a newly opened theater in Zaqatala; there he met and married the actress Sofia Huseynova, and their son Rafael Dadashov was born that same year.

His first film role came in 1961 in a screen adaptation of Leyli and Majnun, and he became best known for playing Gamlo in Son Geçit. In 1985 he played the counter-intelligence officer Niaz Khan in a joint Azerbaijanfilm-Belarusfilm production. Known mainly for playing villainous characters, Dadashov was named People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1974 and received the State Prize of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1986, along with the Order of the Badge of Honour. He died on 2 December 1996 in Baku.