Razzak Khamraev

Born May 2 (15), 1910, in Perovsk (present-day Kzyl-Orda). Soviet Uzbek actor and stage director. People’s Artist of the USSR (1969). Member of the CPSU since 1945.

Khamraev graduated from the Tashkent Institute of Education in 1930 and from the stage directing department of the Tashkent Institute of Theatrical Arts in 1954. He became principal stage director for the Namangan Theater in 1934. In 1946 he was engaged as stage director and actor with the M. Mukimi Uzbek Theater of Musical Drama and Comedy, becoming principal stage director in 1959. His productions have included Iashen’s Two Communists (1932), Schiller’s Love and Intrigue (1939), Abdulla’s Mukimi (1954, in which Khamraev played the title role), Love for the Homeland by Fatkhulin and Sagdulla (1957), Gu-liam’s Tashbolta in Love (1961, with Khamraev in the role of Melibai), Khamza’s Secrets of the Paranja (1961), and Dear Girls by Shangitbaev and Baiseitov (1963). His acting roles have included Vasilii Ivanovich in Iashen’s Nurkhon and Kenzha in Umarov’s With Your Love.

Khamraev began his motion-picture career in 1945, appearing in the films Takhir and Zukhra (1945), The Journeys of Nasreddin (1947), Alisher Navoi (1948), and The Star of Ulug Beg (1965). In 1954 he became an instructor at the Ostrovskii Institute of Theatrical Arts in Tashkent. He has been awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1948), the Khamza State Prize of the Uzbek SSR (1972), four orders, and various medals.