Reza Badiyi dies at 81: The Hollywood director who loved Persian Poetry
Reza Badiyi, the 81-year old famed Iranian-American Hollywood director died yesterday in Los Angeles due to medical complications. He was born in Arak, Iran on April 17, 1930. Badiyi moved from Iran to America at the age of 25 and graduated from Syracuse University in Audiovisual Studies. He then began his career in Hollywood working with Robert Altman and Sam Pekinpah.
Badiyi is well known for directing episodes of many popular television series in 70's, 80's, and 90's such as episodes of Mission Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, The Incredible Hulk, Mannix, The Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky and Hutch, The Rockford Files, Police Squad, Falcon Crest, Cagney and Lacey, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Le Femme Nikita, Sliders and Baywatch. With 430 directed episodes on TV, he is called by some as the Godfather of American TV series.
He is the father of Mina Badie and the stepfather of Jennifer Jason Leigh, famed Hollywood actress. In 2010, Badiyi was honored at UCLA for his 80th birthday and his 60th year in the entertainment industry.
He was a lover of Persian (Iranian) literature and in recent years had surprised audiences and friends with his mastery of soulful, spiritual, epic and romantic Persian poems. The following was taped last December in Los Angeles exclusively for Kodoom.com during the Winter Solstice (Yalda) night Persian festivity program for Andisheh TV. Badiyi is seen reciting a soulful Persian poem and is seated next to his friend and popular Persian TV Personality Parviz Gharibafshar.
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