Beyk İmanverdi

Beyk İmanverdi — Biography

Reza Beyk Imanverdi was born in Tehran in June 1936, the son of a North Azerbaijani father and a South Azerbaijani mother. He picked up English while working at the American embassy in Tehran and took his first step onto the stage by joining a theater troupe called "Oscar" in 1958. The turning point in his career came when director Samuel Khachikian, whom he met in a road accident, cast him in a small role in a 1961 film; that role opened the door to a long career spanning more than 150 films through the 1960s and 1970s.

Nicknamed "the man of a thousand faces" by the press, Imanverdi was known for both action and comic roles; drawing on his background as a professional wrestling champion, he performed his own stunts in fight scenes, and through his own studio, "Studio RB," he directed and produced some of his films himself. He became the first Iranian actor to take a lead role in an Italian film, and contributed to Turkish cinema through co-productions such as Şeref Sözü, Silah Arkadaşları, Küçük Ev and Fırtına. Banned from acting after the 1979 revolution, he emigrated first to Germany and then to the United States, where he worked as a truck driver for years. Diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002, he died in Arizona on September 13, 2003; per his wishes, his body was not sent back to Iran.