Vakhtang Kikabidze, Georgian film actor, pop singer, screenwriter, film director and songwriter, has died at the age of 84.
Since 2020 Kikabidze has been a member of the Georgian Parliament for the United National Movement party. After the war in August 2008 Buba Kikabidze refused to work in Russia and had not been to Moscow since.
Kikabidze was born on July 19, 1938 in Tbilisi. In 1959-1965 he studied at Tbilisi State University and in 1961-1963 at the Institute of Foreign Languages.
Since 1959 he had performed for the Philharmonic. Kikabidze sang in the ensembles Dielo and Rero, and in 1967 he was a soloist of the Orera vocal and instrumental ensemble.
Kikabidze acted in many films, including Gia (“Meeting in the Mountains”), Benjamin Glonti (“Do not Cry”, 1968), Georgy Mikeladze (“I am an Investigator”, 1971), and Pavle (“Melodies of the Verian Quarters”, 1973). One of his most famous roles was as Valiko Mizandari (“Mimino”, 1977). Kikabidze was also a director and screenwriter — “Be healthy, dear” (1981) and “Real men and others” (1985).
By the 1980s, he became an acclaimed singer across the USSR.
In the late 1960s, Kikabidze rose to fame as an actor in the film industry, with his most famous role as Mimino in the eponym 1977 film, a helicopter pilot dreaming of flying to the United States, while also appearing in various Georgian and Russian movies. His last film, Fortune, was directed by the famous Georgian film director Giorgi Danelia in 2000.
A recipient of several titles including People’s Artist of Georgia, Lifetime Achievement Award and Shota Rustaveli State Prize, he was also named as an Honourable Citizen of Tbilisi in 1999 and Honorary Artist of Ukraine.
by Jam-news, 1lurer
