Pouri Banayi
Pouri Banayi, born Seddigheh Banayi on 11 October 1940 in Arak, Iran, is an Iranian actress who became a major star in Iranian cinema before the 1979 revolution. She acted in more than 85 feature films from 1964 to 1979 and worked with many prominent directors, including Mehdi Reisfirooz, Samuel Khachikian, Masoud Kimiai, Farrokh Ghaffari, and Fereidoun Goleh. Her most memorable roles are in the Iranian New Wave films Qeysar (1969) and The Mandrake.
She also appeared in several foreign films, such as Missile X: The Neutron Bomb Incident (1978) with Peter Graves; The Moon and a Murmur (1977) with John Ireland and Mickey Rooney; The Invincible Six (1970) directed by Jean Negulesco; and Golgo 13 (1973), a joint project by Iran and Japan directed by Jun’ya Sato. Banayi was born in Arak and lived there for four years. She has six sisters—Mehri, Akram (Aki), Ashie, Eshie, Massoumeh, and Nassarin—and one brother, Mohammed; her sister Akram Banayi was a singer who lived in Los Angeles and died in 2025.
Her first feature film was The Foreign Bride, directed by Nosratollah Vahdat, who suggested she act because he was a relative. In 1967 she co-starred with Behrouz Vosoughi, and their collaboration continued in many films; they appeared together in Qeysar in 1970. Banayi also did voice dubbing for many of her films; Zhaleh Kazemi was one of her dubbers.
After the 1979 revolution, many Iranian actors left the country. Banayi chose to stay in Iran but appeared only as an extra in one film after the revolution. She was once engaged to Behrouz Vosoughi, but he later married Googoosh.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:18 (CET).