Zia Mohyeddin

Zia Mohyeddin

Born: June 20, 1931
Died: February 13, 2023
in Lyallpur, Punjab, British India
Zia Mohyeddin (1931-2023) was a British-Pakistani polymath and actor famed for his voice.

Born in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), British India in a Urdu-Speaking family, he spent his early life in Karachi. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London from 1953-1956. After stage roles in Long Day's Journey Into Night and Julius Caesar, he made his West End debut in A Passage to India in 1960. His film debut was in Lawrence of Arabia in 1963, playing the role of Tafas (the Arab guide who is shot by Omar Sharif for drinking water from the wrong well). He then made numerous TV and film appearances, and starred as Dr Aziz in the 1965 BBC television version of A Passage to India.

He returned to Pakistan in the late 1960s. There he founded and ran the PIA Arts and Dance Academy, and hosted his own TV talk show. Around this time he met and subsequently (in 1973) married the classical dancer Naheed Siddiqui. However, after difficulties with the regime Mohyeddin returned to England in the late 1970s, shortly followed by his wife. During the 1980s Zia worked in Birmingham, Great Britain, where he produced Central Television's flagship multicultural programme Here and Now.

He resumed his acting career in Europe, appearing in small roles in various movies and television programs. He traveled the world giving Urdu poetry and prose recitations. In the late 1990s, Zia remarried, and had a daughter with his wife, Azra. In February 2005 President Pervez Musharraf invited Mohyeddin to act as Chairman of the new National Academy of Performing Arts in Karachi.

Until his death, Zia was very active among Pakistani media as a speaker and hosted several TV programs both for National and Private Channels. He was also involved in narrating some abstract short films and commercials

Movies for Zia Mohyeddin...

Last Remarks
Title: Last Remarks
Character: Radio Announcer
Released: January 1, 2012
Type: Movie
As the sun sets on the British Empire, the British rulers of the Indian subcontinent prepare to divide the region into two independent states: India and Pakistan. For the diverse native population, freedom comes at a cost and ethnic violence sweeps the region. On the eve of Pakistani independence in 1947, Arastu Jan, a troubled and isolated native servant to a British master, takes a dose of poison and finds himself with ten minutes to record the confession of his brief lifetime.
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Ghazi Shaheed
Title: Ghazi Shaheed
Character: Narrator
Released: September 6, 1996
Type: Movie
The film covers a story of mysterious loss of Pakistani submarine PNS Ghazi. She has participated in second and third Indo-Pakistani wars (1965 and 1971) and has been sunk in December 1971 nearby Indian coast.
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Doomsday Gun
Title: Doomsday Gun
Character: Hashim
Released: July 23, 1994
Type: Movie
Dr Gerald Bull was a genius at designing and building superguns (very large long range guns capable of shooting at ranges more than 100 miles). When an operational plan by the CIA to export sanctioned arms to apartheid-South Africa through him was exposed, the CIA denied all knowledge and he went to jail. He was later released, and moved to Belgium to start a subsidiary, of which a major project was to help Saddam Hussein build a new supergun capable of firing over 500 miles.
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Immaculate Conception
Title: Immaculate Conception
Character: Shehzada
Released: September 11, 1992
Type: Movie
Alistair, a British representative for a wildlife conservation agency based in Karachi and his Jewish-American wife Hannah have been unsuccessful at conceiving a child. Over time, the desire to have a child begins to consume Hannah and she persuades a reluctant Alistair to go with her for three days to a fertility shrine. After a ceremony during which Hannah converts to Islam and coaxes Alistair to do the same, she becomes pregnant. But Hannah’s joy at the discovery of her pregnancy is overshadowed by worsening relations with Alistair who has started an affair with their friend Samira and tensions begin to mount when eunuchs from the shrine start to harass the couple.
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Shalom Salaam
Title: Shalom Salaam
Character: Sadiq Sattar
Released: April 26, 1989
Type: Movie
Two disparate families become intertwined when a Jewish man and a Muslim woman fall in love while attending college.
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Partition
Title: Partition
Released: August 19, 1987
Type: Movie
The tumultuous events surrounding the sub-continent's partition in 1947 into India and Pakistan are re-imagined in Ken McMullen's complex and visually striking film. A lunatic asylum in the city of Lahore becomes a mirror image of events in the outside political world, with the same actors playing both inmates and rulers. Adapted by Tariq Ali and McMullen from famous Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto's short story 'Toba Tek Singh', Partition speaks for the countless millions that the usual British Raj films sweep out of sight. Released to mark the 60th anniversary of the partition of the Indian sub-continent, this is the film's first-ever release on DVD.
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King of the Ghetto
Title: King of the Ghetto
Character: Timur Hussein
Released: May 1, 1986
Type: Movie
An idealistic former soldier helps unite and house ethnic minorities in a run down area of London's east end
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Title: King of the Ghetto
Character: Timur Hussein
Released: May 1, 1986
Type: TV
BBC Drama about racial tensions in London's east end in the 1980s.
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The Assam Garden
Title: The Assam Garden
Character: Mr. Lal
Released: June 4, 1985
Type: Movie
An insecure, aggressive widow of a tea garden manager reluctantly develops an affectionate relationship with an Indian housewife and her family.
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Title: Bergerac
Character: Adnan Rashid
Released: October 18, 1981
Type: TV
Bergerac is a British television show set on Jersey. Produced by the BBC in association with the Seven Network, and first screened on BBC1, it stars John Nettles as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in Le Bureau des Étrangers, part of the States of Jersey Police.
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Title: Minder
Character: Tajvir
Released: October 29, 1979
Type: TV
This comedy drama series featured Terry McCann, a former boxer with a conviction for G.B.H., and Arthur Daley, a second-hand car dealer with an eye for a nice little earner. Alongside his many business ventures, Arthur would regularly hire Terry out as a minder or bodyguard, later replaced by nephew, Ray Daley.
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Ashanti
Title: Ashanti
Character: Djamil
Released: February 21, 1979
Type: Movie
Dr. Anansa Linderby is kidnapped in a medical mission in Africa by a slave trader. From this moment, her husband will do anything to recover her and to punish the bad guys, but that will be not an easy task.
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Bombay Talkie
Title: Bombay Talkie
Character: Hari
Released: November 18, 1970
Type: Movie
An English novelist travels to Bombay to watch one of her novels translated to film. She chases after the movie's leading man while the screenwriter chases after her.
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Title: The Champions
Character: Prengo
Released: September 25, 1968
Type: TV
The Champions is a British espionage/science fiction/occult detective fiction adventure series consisting of 30 episodes broadcast on the UK network ITV during 1968–1969, produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company. The series was broadcast in the US on NBC, starting in summer 1968.
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Work Is a 4-Letter Word
Title: Work Is a 4-Letter Word
Character: Dr Aly Narayana
Released: September 15, 1968
Type: Movie
Dreamlike satire about a young man who resists getting a job at the lone employing conglomerate in his dreary industrial town, but changes his mind when he discovers the plant's boiler room has the perfect climate to assist him with his pet horticultural (fungal) project.
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Title: The Expert
Character: Lutaf Adamjee
Released: July 5, 1968
Type: TV
The Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. John Hardy, a pathologist working for the Home Office and was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was also one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had numerous high quality guest appearances by actors such as John Carson, Peter Copley, Rachel Kempson, Peter Vaughan, Clive Swift, Geoffrey Palmer, Peter Barkworth, Jean Marsh, Ray Brooks, George Sewell, Anthony Valentine, Bernard Lee, Lee Montague, Geoffrey Bayldon, Mike Pratt, Edward Fox, André Morell, Brian Blessed, Nigel Stock, Philip Madoc and Warren Clarke.
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Title: Man in a Suitcase
Released: September 27, 1967
Type: TV
Accused of treason, a former U.S. intelligence officer based in London tries to clear his name, taking on freelance jobs around Europe as he searches for answers.
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They Came from Beyond Space
Title: They Came from Beyond Space
Character: Farge
Released: May 1, 1967
Type: Movie
A group of scientists are possessed by an alien force when they investigate a meteor shower in a rural field.
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Deadlier Than the Male
Title: Deadlier Than the Male
Character: King Fedra
Released: February 12, 1967
Type: Movie
British agent Bulldog Drummond is assigned to stop a master criminal who uses beautiful women to do his killings.
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The Sailor from Gibraltar
Title: The Sailor from Gibraltar
Character: Noori
Released: January 1, 1967
Type: Movie
Alan, after quarreling with his girlfriend Sheila, becomes intrigued by Anna, a mysterious widow who's searching for a sailor she had known many years before. Alan and Anna begin the search on board a yacht bound for Greece, but they don't find the sailor. After a stop in Africa, Louis de Mozambique joins the party and suggests that the sailor may never have existed other than in Anna's mind.
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Khartoum
Title: Khartoum
Character: Zobeir Pasha
Released: June 9, 1966
Type: Movie
English General Charles George Gordon is appointed military governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by the Prime Minister. Ordered to evacuate Egyptians from the Sudan, Gordon stays on to protect the people of Khartoum, who are under threat of being conquered by a Muslim army.
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A Passage to India
Title: A Passage to India
Character: Dr Aziz
Released: November 16, 1965
Type: Movie
The BBC's 1965 adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel, screened as part of their Play of the Month strand, adapted by Santha Ramu Rau and John Maynard, and directed by Waris Hussein.
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Title: BBC Play of the Month
Character: Bandi Grosz
Released: October 19, 1965
Type: TV
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983; the producer most associated with the Play of the Month was Cedric Messina. Some of the 121 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970s. Unless stated otherwise, the indication that the play is "lost" is taken from the lostshows.com website page as of 25 May 2013.
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Title: BBC Play of the Month
Character: Dr. Aziz
Released: October 19, 1965
Type: TV
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983; the producer most associated with the Play of the Month was Cedric Messina. Some of the 121 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970s. Unless stated otherwise, the indication that the play is "lost" is taken from the lostshows.com website page as of 25 May 2013.
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Title: The Hidden Truth
Released: September 24, 1964
Type: TV
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Behold a Pale Horse
Title: Behold a Pale Horse
Character: Luis, Guide of Paco
Released: August 14, 1964
Type: Movie
Manuel Artiguez, a famous bandit during the Spanish civil war, has lived in French exile for 20 years. When his mother is dying he considers visiting her secretly in his Spanish home town. But his biggest enemy, the Spanish police officer Vinolas, prepared a trap at the hospital as a chance to finally catch Artiguez.
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Sammy Going South
Title: Sammy Going South
Character: The Syrian
Released: March 18, 1963
Type: Movie
After he is orphaned by an air raid on Port Said during the Suez Crisis, a young boy attempts to go by himself from the Suez Canal to Durban in South Africa where his nearest relative, Aunt Jane, lives. On the way he meets a variety of different people who help or hinder his journey - including an ageing diamond smuggler.
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Lawrence of Arabia
Title: Lawrence of Arabia
Character: Tafas
Released: December 11, 1962
Type: Movie
The story of British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological instability threatens to undermine his achievements.
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Title: Sir Francis Drake
Character: King Philip of Spain
Released: November 12, 1961
Type: TV
Sir Francis Drake was a British adventure television series starring Terence Morgan as Sir Francis Drake, commander of the sailing ship the Golden Hind. As well as battles at sea, sword fights, the series also deals with intrigue at Elizabeth's court, often caused by Spaniard, Mendoza.
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The Day of the Fox
Title: The Day of the Fox
Character: President Rajan
Released: September 6, 1961
Type: Movie
"In Jan Carew’s explosive drama, Sammy Davis Jr gives a memorable performance as a proud but disillusioned revolutionary who aims to destroy the remnants of white colonial rule in a new African nation. The political themes explored remain incredibly prescient." - BFI
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Title: The Avengers
Released: January 7, 1961
Type: TV
The Avengers is a British television series created in the 1960s. It initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed. Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants. His most famous assistants were intelligent, stylish and assertive women: Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King. Later episodes increasingly incorporated elements of science fiction and fantasy, parody and British eccentricity.
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Some Lover to Some Beloved
Title: Some Lover to Some Beloved
Character: Zia Mohyeddin
Released: December 31, 1969
Type: Movie
Inspired by John Gielgud, veteran Pakistani actor Zia Mohyeddin ('Lawrence of Arabia', 'A Passage to India') recites readings from now fading Urdu literature every year. In 2010, he makes a deviation from his thirty-year tradition and reads solely from the work of one author - legendary revolutionary Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. As contemporary Pakistan devolves into violence and instability, Zia's readings of Faiz's poetry find new resonance and leads Zia on an introspective journey into his extraordinary past and uncertain future.