Forouzan Füruzan

Forouzan — Biography

Forouzan, born Parvin Kheirbakhsh, was one of the best-loved actresses of Iranian cinema before the 1979 revolution. Her screen partnership with Mohammad Ali Fardin is counted among the emblems of Film Farsi, the popular Iranian cinema of the period. After the revolution she was banned from acting and did not appear on screen again before her death in Tehran in 2016.

She began as a dubbing artist. Her first film was Siamak Yasemi's Sahel-e Entezar, but her real breakthrough came opposite Fardin in Yasemi's Ganj-e Qarun (1965). After it the pair shared the screen in some of the highest-grossing films of the era; The Humans, Dalahoo and Ayyoob are among the titles that carried her name. She also played in Ali Hatami's Baba Shamal (1971), and worked as a producer. During the 1960s and 70s she appeared in more than sixty films, and some of those Iranian productions became known in Turkey under Turkish titles such as The Great Oath, Tahran Macerası and Yousof va Zolaykha.

In Dariush Mehrjui's Dayere-ye Mina she had her one link with the Iranian New Wave, and she also worked with directors such as Fereydun Goleh, Shapur Gharib and Iraj Ghaderi. She made no film after 1978; barred from acting after the revolution, she grew more isolated and rarely gave interviews. Her popularity endured after her death.