Hamid Samandarian
Hamid Samandarian (May 6, 1931 – July 12, 2012) was an Iranian film and theater director, translator, playwright, and screenwriter. Born in Tehran, he directed many stage productions, including No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, and The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi by Friedrich Durrenmatt. He ran numerous acting and directing classes, training many Iranian actors and directors such as Ezzatolah Entezami, Reza Kianian, Golab Adineh, Mehdi Hashemi, Shahab Hosseini, Hojjat Baqaee, Parviz Poorhosseini, Ahmad Aghalou, and Danial Hakimi.
Samandarian married actress Homa Rousta in 1972, and their son Kaveh was born in 1975. He translated and staged many famous plays by authors including Friedrich Durrenmatt, Bertolt Brecht, Anton Chekhov, Eugène Ionesco, Arthur Miller, Max Frisch, Tennessee Williams, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Henrik Ibsen. His Persian translations were widely published, including a 2014 edition of Brecht’s Life of Galileo.
He directed one feature film, All the Temptations of the Earth, in 1989. He also published interviews and other writings; one notable work is This Stage Is My House. His talks are featured in a collection on the global reception of Eugène Ionesco’s Rhinoceros by Ahmad Kamyabi Mask.
Samandarian is buried at Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, 88 Segment, Tehran.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:51 (CET).