Birth of Khoren Abrahamian (April 1, 1930)

Khoren Abrahamian was one of the renowned actors of Armenian theater and cinema in the 1960s-1990s.  

He was born in Yerevan on April 1, 1930.  He studied violin and painting, and graduated from the school of dance. He entered the Yerevan Institute of Theater and Fine Arts and graduated in 1951. He entered the Sundukian State Academic Theater in 1948 and played many leading roles in plays by Armenian and non-Armenian authors. He was appointed its executive director (1979-1984). After a stint as actor and executive director of the State Theater of Leninakan (Gyumri) in 1985-1988, he returned to the Sundukian Theater as artistic director in 1988-1995. At the same time, he was president of the Theater Union of Armenia. In 1989-1991 he was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He married twice, to fellow actresses Lyusya Hovhannisian and Gohar Galstian and had three children. He earned the title of People’s Artist of the Soviet Union in 1980. 

Abrahamian debuted in cinema playing small parts in Armenian and Russian movies in the late 1940s and the 1950s. He played more significant roles in the films The Song of First Love and The Heart of a Mother, both from 1958. He gained recognition with his performance in The Saroyan Brothers (1968), which he also co-directed and in We Are Our Mountains, by Henrik Malian (1970). He played the lead in A Chronicle of Yerevan Days (1974) and Live Long (1979). He also played historical characters in Delivery (1976) and The Star of Hope (1979) and participated in several Russian films. Dramatic restraint, analytical posture, and polished wording were the main characteristics of his roles. 

Statistically speaking, Khoren Abrahamian played about 200 major and minor roles on the stage, directed 40 plays, and appeared in 64 movies. He passed away on December 10, 2004, in Yerevan, and was buried at Komitas Pantheon.