Zurab Kapianidze was a Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 theater and film actor and philologist. He was also a member of the Parliament of Georgia

Parliament of Georgia

Parliament of Georgia is the supreme legislature of Georgia. It is unicameral and has 150 members, known as deputies, from which 75 members are proportional representatives and 75 are elected through single-member district plurality system, representing their constituencies...

 from 1999 to 2003.

Biography

Born in the village of Nakieti in the highland province of Racha

Racha

Racha is a highland area in western Georgia, located in the upper Rioni river valley and hemmed in by the Greater Caucasus mountains...

, Zurab Kapianidze graduated from Tbilisi State Theater Institute in 1961 and performed at the Meskhishvili Theater in Kutaisi

Kutaisi

Kutaisi is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Imereti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi.-Geography:...

 from 1961 to 1964, when he moved to Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

 to join the Kartuli Pilmi film studio. He starred in 43 films produced by this studio. He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Georgian SSR in 1979 and the State Prize

State Prizes of the Soviet Republics

The State Prizes of the Soviet Republics were each republic counterpart to the USSR State Prize. Each republic granted several different prizes, generally named after writers or artists from the republic, as well as a blanket Komsomol prize for young artists....

 in 1985.

Kapianidze was also engaged in the research of ancient alphabets. His ideas regarding the origin of the Georgian alphabet

Georgian alphabet

The Georgian alphabet is the writing system used to write the Georgian language and other Kartvelian languages , and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus such as Ossetic and Abkhaz during the 1940s...

 have not to date been taken seriously by the Georgian academic establishment. His book, published in 1990, claimed that the Georgian alphabet was among the first writing systems in the world and attached cosmic-astronomic significance to it. From 1999 to 2003 Kapianidze was elected to the Parliament of Georgia as a non-party member running on the ticket of the block Aghordzineba ("Revival of Georgia") chaired by Aslan Abashidze

Aslan Abashidze

Aslan Abashidze was the leader of the Ajarian Autonomous Republic in western Georgia from 1991 to May 5, 2004. He resigned under the pressure of the central Georgian government and mass opposition rallies during the 2004 Adjara crisis, and has since lived in Moscow, Russia...

.

Zurab Kapianidze died on July 4, 2011 and was buried at the Didube Pantheon

Didube Pantheon

The Didube Pantheon is a burial in Tbilisi, Georgia, where some of the most prominent writers, artists, scholars, scientists and political activists of Georgia are buried. It was opened in 1939.- See also :* Mtatsminda Pantheon* Saburtalo Pantheon...

in Tbilisi.

External links

• Zurab Kapianidze. Georgian National Filmography
• Kapianidze, Zurab & Mibchuani, Teimuraz (2002), Sumerian-Georgian Alphabets. Research Center "Sumer".