Iranian actress, stage director Homa Rusta dies at 69

Veteran Iranian actress and stage director Homa Rusta died at a hospital in Los Angeles on Saturday after a long battle with cancer. She was 69. She left the country months ago to receive further treatment in the United States, Persian Media reported on Sunday.

Rusta was the widow of the prominent Iranian stage director and playwright Hamid Samandarian, who died of liver cancer at the age of 81 in summer 2012.

She will be buried next to her husband in the Artists Section of Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery after being transferred to Iran.

"Mrs. Rusta entered cinema and spent her entire life on her art. She lived among people with all her love," director Puran Derakhshandeh said in her message of condolences.

Rusta starred in Derakhshandeh's "The Little Bird of Happiness", for which she was nominated for a best actress award at the 6th Fajr International Film Festival.

Actor Mohamamd-Ali Keshavarz also expressed his grief over the sad demise of Rusta and said that he and the actress had promised to act in a play later on when they felt better.

Born in 1946 in Tehran, Rusta studied dramatic arts in Bucharest and returned home in 1970. She made her debut with "The Glass Wall" by director Samuel Khachikian in 1971. A year later, she directed the play "The Glass Menagerie" written by Tennessee Williams.

She continued her career after the Islamic Revolutio, playing in "A Report of a Murder" directed by Mohammad-Ali Najafi in 1986.

She also starred in Bahram Beizaii's "Passengers" and Ebrahim Hatamikia's acclaimed movie "From Karkheh to Rhine". She was nominated for best actress award for her role in "From Karkheh to Rhine" at the 11th Fajr festival.

The 32nd Fajr International Film Festival awarded her a Golden Simorgh for her lifetime achievements in 2014.

She staged "The Cherry Orchard" in Tehran in the summer of 2013.

Source: Tehran Times