‘Zero Dark Thirty’ and ‘Kite Runner’ Actor Dies of Cancer: Homayoun Ershadi Was 78

Beloved Iranian actor Homayoun Ershadi has died. He was 78.

The country’s state news agency IRNA announced that he passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer.

Ershadi began his life as an architect, moving to Italy in 1966 and then Canada in 1979 to further his career. He returned to Iran in 1990 after he divorced his ex-wife, and he was sitting at a red light in traffic when legendary Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami approached him, knocked on the window, and said, “I want to make a film. Would you like to be in it?”

That film ended up being Taste of Cherry, where Ershadi played the main role of a middle-aged man who drives through the suburbs seeking out someone who would be willing to bury him after he kills himself. Eventually, the man he finds to do the job tries to convince him not to commit suicide by showing him the beauty of life.

Taste of Cherry took the world by storm when it premiered at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, winning the top prize, the Palme d’Or. It is now considered one of the greatest movies of all time.

The success of the movie launched Ershadi’s career, and he eventually became internationally renowned for his acting work.

His most famous roles worldwide were as the father figure in Marc Forster’s Afghanistan-set drama The Kite Runner, and his role as Hassan Ghul, a member of al-Qaeda in Kathryn Bigelow’s war drama Zero Dark Thirty. He also appeared in the 2014 spy thriller A Most Wanted Man opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman and Willem Dafoe.

It has long been rumored that Ershadi will play a lead role in iconic director Terrence Malick’s The Way of Wind, which has been in production since 2019, but given the secrecy of the film’s production these reports are unconfirmed.

His last on-screen appearance was in the 2022 Iranian film The Town.