Armenian Actor and Director Artashes Aleksanyan Dies at 64

Honored Artist of Armenia Artashes Aleksanyan, whose career spanned Armenian theater, cinema and television, died early Monday after a brief hospitalization. He was 64.

His friend Harutyun Bogaryan said Aleksanyan had been in the hospital for three days. His heart stopped at 3:55 a.m. on July 6, Bogaryan said.

Aleksanyan was born in Yerevan in 1961 and would have turned 65 on July 17. He studied acting at the Gabriel Sundukyan National Academic Theatre’s studio under Khoren Abrahamyan before continuing his education in Moscow at VGIK, where he trained under Armen Dzhigarkhanyan.

He began appearing in films in the 1980s and later joined the Gabriel Sundukyan National Academic Theatre. In 1990, he starred in The War of the Three Kings and The Princess of the Fallen Fortress, winning Best Actor of the Year for his role in the latter.

Aleksanyan went on to work with the Mher Mkrtchyan Artistic Theatre, Lenfilm Studio and Armenian television companies. He also returned to the Sundukyan Theatre, remaining part of Armenia’s cultural life across several decades.

His work reached beyond Armenia in the late 1990s, when he served as a director at the Mother Theatre in the Czech Republic. There, he staged productions including Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lope de Vega’s The Dog in the Manger, Gogol’s The Government Inspector, Charley’s Aunt and Beast on the Moon.

Aleksanyan also directed performances honoring the 1,700th anniversary of Armenia’s adoption of Christianity as a state religion, as well as productions dedicated to the Armenian Genocide.

His screen credits included Don’t Be Afraid, Poker.am, Garegin Nzhdeh, Russian Ark, Special Forces Unit and The Other Side of the Medal. He also appeared in several television series.

Aleksanyan leaves behind a body of work that connected Armenian stage traditions with film and television, making him a familiar figure to audiences in Armenia and abroad.

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