‘Taste of Cherry’ Actor Homayoun Ershadi Passes Away

Renowned Iranian actor and architect Homayoun Ershadi has passed away. After a long battle with cancer, he died on Monday (11 November) at the age of 78, according to the Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Born on 26 March 1947 in Isfahan, Iran, Ershadi made his screen debut in Abbas Kiarostami’s Palme d’Or-winning film Taste of Cherry (1997). His entry into cinema came almost by chance, after Kiarostami spotted him at a traffic signal in Tehran and asked, “I want to make a film. Would you like to act in it?”

Following the Iranian Revolution, Ershadi spent several years in Vancouver, Canada, working at an architectural firm before returning to Iran. Taste of Cherry marked a turning point in his career, and over the next three decades, he appeared in more than 90 films. He gained international recognition for his role in Marc Forster’s The Kite Runner.

Other notable works include Alejandro Amenábar’s Agora (2009), Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012), and Hassan Nazer’s UK-based film Utopia (2015). There had also been rumours that he would appear in Terrence Malick’s long-awaited film The Way of the Wind, though this was never officially confirmed.

Homayoun Ershadi’s memory will remain alive among film lovers around the world.