Personal life and death (Video)

Mher (Frunzik) Mushegovich Mkrtchyan (Russian: Мгер (Фрунзик) Мушегович Мкртчян; 4 July 1930 – 29 December 1993) was a popular Soviet Armenian actor who was named a People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1984.

He was born in Leninakan, currently Gyumri, Armenia. He studied in Leninakan Art College and Theatre Studio, then finished at the Acting Department of Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts and Theatre. Since 1953 he has performed in the Sundukyan Drama Theatre of Yerevan. He also directed many successful productions, best of them Maxim Gorky's "The Lower Depths". His cinema career began in 1955. His famous roles in Rolan Bykov's "Aybolit-66" (1966), Leonid Gaidai's "Kidnapping, Caucasian Style" (1966), and Georgi Daneliya's "Mimino" (1977) earned him the reputation of one of the leading comedy actors in the Soviet Union. But that reputation sometimes overshadowed his real talent and emotional depth which he put into his roles in such classics of Armenian cinema as "Yerankyuni" (1967), "Menq enq, mer sarere" (1969) , "Hayrik" (1973), "Nahapet" (1977), "Hin oreri yerge" (1982), "Mer mankutyan tangon" (1985). Among his many awards was the USSR State Prize for 1978. He died in Yerevan, Armenia, in 1993.