Vakhtang Kikabidze passed away

Famous Georgian actor, pop singer, screenwriter, film director, songwriter Vakhtang (Buba) Kikabidze has died at the age of 84.

Vakhtang Kikabidze was born on July 19, 1938, Tbilisi, Georgian SSR.

Father - junior lieutenant Konstantin Kikabidze (1906-1942), worked as a journalist, went missing in December 1942 near Kerch, came from an Imeretian noble family. Mother - Manana  Bagrationi (1915-2002), was a singer

Maternal grandmother Olga is from the ancient princely family of Amirejibi from Kartli.

During his school years, Vakhtang Kikabidze participated in an amateur art circle. Upon graduation, he entered the Tbilisi State Institute of Foreign Languages. In 1959 he joined the Tbilisi Philharmonic.

According to Kikabidze himself, he was never a member of the Komsomol, and was expelled from the pioneers for cleaning his shoes with his pioneer tie.

In 1966 he joined the Orera ensemble (percussion instruments, vocals). Around the same time, he sang in the Dielo quartet.

In the same 1966 he made his film debut - "Meeting in the Mountains" (directed by N. Sanishvili). In 1969, he first starred with Georgy Danelia in the film Do not Cry! (prize for the best male role of the International Film Festival in Cartagena, 1970). The next landmark film was the painting "Melodies of the Veriysky Quarter" (directed by Georgy Shengelaya, 1974).

In December 1976, as the head of the Orera ensemble, together with Nani Bregvadze, he performed in the final of the Song of the Year television festival, later reached the final 5 more times in 1978, 1980, 1981, 1999, 2005.

In 1977, the film "Mimino" was released, where the actor played the role of pilot Valentin Mizandari.

Since the 1980s, he began a solo career.

In 1981, according to his script, he shot a comedy in four short stories "Be healthy, dear!" (Grand Prix Gabrovo-83), and in 1985 - the film "Men and Everyone Else". In 1984, he starred in the television series "TASS is authorized to declare".

In 2013, the actor said that he was writing a book under the working title "The Face of Caucasian Nationality". The book, consisting of several short stories about people of different nationalities, was published in 2016 under the title "They".