Zia Mohyeddin

Zia Mohyeddin 19312023 was a BritishPakistani polymath and actor famed for his voice Born in Lyallpur now Faisalabad British India in a UrduSpeaking family he spent his early life in Karachi He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London from 19531956 After stage roles in Long Days 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 Televisions 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