Actress from Oscar-Winning Movie Dies of Stroke Complications at Age 76: RIP to Shirin Yazdanbakhsh

An actress from several acclaimed films passed away at the end of 2025.

Shirin Yazdanbakhsh, who appeared in the Oscar-winning movie A Separation, died on Dec. 25, according to the Performing Arts Association of Iran. The organization cited Yazdanbakhsh’s niece, Maryam Massoudi, who revealed the actress died of complications after suffering a stroke in October.

Yazdanbakhsh, whose name is also translated from شیرین یزدان‌بخش, had not made her stroke public before her death. She passed away just weeks before her 77th birthday, which fell on Jan. 9.

The Iranian star’s best known work to U.S. audiences is A Separation, a movie about a family whose dynamic crumbles when a husband and wife separate. It won Best Foreign Language Film at the 2012 Oscars, where writer/director Asghar Farhadi also snagged a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Yazdanbakhsh played the mother of protagonist Simin (Leila Hatami) in the film.

Yazdanbakhsh’s other projects include Please Do Not Disturb (2010) and Kissing the Moon-Like Face (2012) and Life and a Day (2016).

Her last credited roles include 2020’s Killer Spider, 2021’s Be Human Once a Week and 2021’s The Future.

Loved ones have already held a private funeral for the late actress. The death announcement concluded with a final request for those who knew her: “She wanted her friends to remember her with a final smile.”