Pedestrian

Behrooz Baghayi is in the center, wearing white, after performing Hamlet and Season Salad

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Behrooz Baghayi is a well known Iranian stage actor, producer and writer. He was a frequent collaborator of Masoud Rassam and Bijan Birangh.

It was just announced that he suffered a stroke last night and is in coma. His doctor’s account of his health sound so very bleak.

You must note, that in Iran, the culture of celebrity that I’ve grown up with is very different than the one in the West (or even the one in Iran today). People like Baghayi, Rassam, etc, started working during the war. It earned them much recognition and praise, but little else. No entourage of limousines, or super fancy homes. It was very much an act of love, and it was reciprocated. Men like Rassam and Baghayi are forever engraved in the sweetest of our childhood memories. During the war, we had nothing but the TV and they did whatever they could to let us forget the fire and blood raging outside – if only for an hour.

Reading news like this devastates us all.

On stage with renowned Iranian novelist, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi.