Bashir Safaroghlu

Bashir Safaroghlu (Azerbaijan: Bəşir Səfəroğlu) was an Azerbaijani Soviet theater and film actor. He was part of the Azerbaijan Musical Comedy Theater, People's Artist of Azerbaijan SSR (1968). He was the father of People's Artist of Azerbaijan Afag Bashirgizi.

Safaroghlu was born on 11 March 1925 in Baku. At age nine he played the role of Gunduz in the amateur performance Sevil by Jafar Jabbarli. He visited the theatrical circle of Aghaali Dadashev. In 1941, the Great Patriotic War began and Bashir Safaroghlu went to the battle front. A year later he got a concussion. Thereafter he could not speak and could not hear well. For some time he worked as a driver, and enrolled in the drama club of the Club of Drivers. He continued to visit the circle of Aghali Dadashev. In the Club of Drivers Safaroghlu met comedian/actor Lutfali Abdullayev, who invited him to the Theater of Musical Comedy. On the advice of the director Niyaz Sharifov, he often visited theaters, and after a while was admitted to the theater troupe. Safaroghlu became very excited during sleep, and then began to talk, and he became an actor. In addition to roles in the theater, he starred in films, shot by Azerbaijanfilm such as Where is Ahmad? as an alcoholic, Ulduz in the role of Gulumsarov and in the film by Tajikfilm 12 tombs of Khoja Nasreddin. In the mid-1960s, the miniature theater "Gelmeli, Gormeli, Gulmeli" was created in the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic. The members of this theater were People's Artist Aliagha Aghayev, Honored Artist Mukhlis Janizadeh, Ofeliya Abbasova and Bashir Safaroghlu. In this collective Bashir created satirical roles. In 1963, when the theater of musical comedy of Azerbaijan toured in Moscow, Arkady Raikin saw the performance of Bashir Safaroghlu and called it "Southern Chaplin".

In 1964, the actor was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Azerbaijan, in 1968 - he was awarded the title of People's Artist. A year later, on March 23, at the age of 44, Bashir Safaroghlu passed away. He was buried in the Alley of Honor in Baku. Rauf Kazimovski produced a documentary film dedicated to Bashir Safaroghlu. Safaroghlu's daughter, People's Artist of Azerbaijan Afag Bashirgizi is the artistic director of the show Bashir, named after her father. In 2002, a Theater named after Bashir Safaroghlu opened in Moscow. In 2004, on the stage of the Moscow State Theater of Satire, the first premiere of the show Bashir Safaroghlu.