Merited Armenian actress, Galia Novents, dies at 75

A renowned actress of the Armenian cinema and theatre art, Galia Novents, has died of a heavy disease at age 75, the Union of Cinematographers said in a statement released today.

A laureate of the Soviet Armenian state award and a winner of international film festivals, Novents made her way to the theatre in 1958 after her graduation from the Yerevan State Theatrical Institute. She worked as an actress at the State Theatre of Kapan (a city in Armenia’s south-east, presently, the capital of Syunik province).

She then pursued her career at the Gabriel Sundukyan National Academic Theatre, the Vardan Achemyan Theatre of Gyumri, the Yerevan Drama Theatre after Hrachya Ghaplanyan, and the Hamazgayin (pan-national) State Theatre headed by popular actor and a people’s artist of Armenia, Sos Sargsyan.

In the final years of her life, Novents worked at the Hakob Paronyan Musical Comedy Theatre.

Novents introduced to the Armenian cinematography the image of an Armenian woman; her sufferings and griefs and the unique outbursts of her soul laid the foundations of the actress’ creative art.

She was compared with such a prominent figure of the world cinema art as Anna Magnani.

The actress had over fifty roles on stage and in radio performances, and dubbed more than 100 characters. But her greatest success was in cinema. She played in the films, Hello, it’s Me!, We are Our Mountains, At this Crossroad, Old Days’ Song, Nahapet (Patriarch), Gikor, White Dreams, A Piece of Sky and about thirty other movies.