Pouri Banayi

Pouri Banayi — Biography

Born Seddigheh Banayi in Arak, Iran, on 11 October 1940, Pouri Banayi had no formal acting training and entered cinema in 1964's The Foreign Bride at the suggestion of her distant relative, director Nosratollah Vahdat. From 1967 she repeatedly co-starred with the era's leading star Behrouz Vosoughi, and their 1969 pairing in Qeysar is regarded as a landmark of the Iranian New Wave. Like most actors of the period, her voice was dubbed on screen, by Zhaleh Kazemi.

In 1970 she again appeared opposite Vosoughi in Jean Negulesco's final film, The Invincible Six, and in 1973 she took the lead in Jun'ya Sato's manga adaptation Golgo 13; she also appeared in Turkish productions such as Tövbekar, Tek Başına and Ah Bu Gençlik. Although summoned to the notorious Evin Prison for questioning after the 1979 revolution, she chose to stay in Iran, appearing afterward only as an extra in a single film. In her personal life she was engaged to Vosoughi, but the relationship ended when he married the singer Googoosh instead.