Amin Tarokh was a famous and popular actor of cinema, television and theater in Iran, who died on September 23, 2022 at the age of 69. He was born on August 11, 1953 in Shiraz and grew up in an art-loving family. He graduated from the Faculty of Performing Arts at the University of Tehran and had a master’s degree in cultural management. He was also the founder of the first acting school in Iran called Free Acting Workshop, which trained many young actors.
Amin Tarokh started his artistic career before the revolution in theater and television and became famous with various plays such as “Iago”, “Kafka” and “Antigone”. His first appearance in cinema was in the film “Death of Yazdgerd” directed by Bahram Beyzai, which was challenging and memorable. In the following years, he portrayed historical, high-level and voluminous roles in different films and series. Some of these roles include Hassan Joori in “Sarbedaran”, Ibn Sina in “Bu Ali Sina”, Abbas Gholi Khan in “Moon and Sun”, Allameh Tabatabaei in “Havana File”, Allameh Agha Sayyed Ja’far Kazemini in “Eghma” and Allameh Hossein Qomshaei in “Qomshaei File”.
He won numerous and prestigious awards during his career. These include the award for best supporting actor at the Fajr Festival for the film “Moon and Sun”, the award for best second actor at the Iran Cinema Celebration for the film “Suffocation”, the National Artist Honor Award, the plaque of appreciation from the government on the occasion of Cinema Day and the plaque of appreciation from the Fajr Theater Festival. He was also invited as a jury member to various festivals and attended international festivals in Moscow, Japan and Germany as a guest.
Amin Tarokh played the role of “Taher Khan Bahre Noor” in the film Delshodegan by Ali Hatami. Taher is one of the Iranian music players who travels to Paris during the Qajar period to record music. On this trip, he falls in love with the blind princess Turk (played by Leila Hatami) and dies in exile.
This film is a free adaptation of three true stories in which different groups of Iranian instrument players traveled abroad in 1907, 1914 and 1921 to record music.
Amin Tarokh showed a challenging and memorable performance in this film. His image is accompanied by the voice of Mohammad Reza Shajarian, who sang instead of the film’s singer – Amin Tarokh – but he was not allowed to lip-sync. For this reason, in the scenes of singing the film, a close-up of the singer was never shown.
The solo singing of Taher, which is sung after falling in love with Princess Turk (Leila Hatami), is one of the most memorable moments of the film.
Amin Tarokh died of a heart attack at a hospital in Tehran on September 23, 2022. He was buried in the artists’ section of Behesht Zahra cemetery.
