Hacho Kirilov Boyadzhiev (; 20 January 1932 – 23 April 2012) was a

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

and

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

. He was probably best known as the director of the popular TV musical '' The Phoney Civilization'' (1974) as well as the director of the New Year's evening TV Variety-Shows broadcast by the national television.

Biography and career

Boyadzhiev was born in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

under the name Imre as the

illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''b ...

son of car racer and

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a ...

Dimitar Sokolov and 17-year-old Hungarian emigrant mother Piri, a milliner. However, his mothers' parents did not approve the two's relationship and he was adopted by the

Novi Pazar Novi Pazar ( sr-cyr, Нови Пазар) is a List of cities in Serbia, city located in the Raška District of southwestern Serbia. As of the 2022 census, the urban area has 71,462 inhabitants, while the city administrative area has 106,720 inha ...

merchant Kiril Boyadzhiev, whom he considers his real father, when he was six months old; the document was issued in

Skopje Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...

. Until the death of his adoptive father, he didn't see his Hungarian mother by birth. Boyadzhiev spent his childhood in Novi Pazar and then enrolled in the

Saint Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman province), Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced th ...

French college in

Plovdiv Plovdiv (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 490,983 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub ...

. During the Allied bombings of the city in 1943, he returned to Novi Pazar. In 1951, he began studying

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

Sofia University Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" () is a public university, public research university in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Bulgaria. Founded on 1 October 1888, the edifice of the university was constr ...

but soon moved to the

National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts The Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (commonly referred to as NATFIZ) is a performing, cinematic and media arts institution of higher education based in Sofia. It is the first Bulgarian university in the field of thea ...

to study directing. After graduating and heading the

Vidin Vidin (, ) is a port city on the southern bank of the Danube in north-western Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Romania and Serbia, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as of the Metropolitan of Vidin (since ...

Theatre Boyadzhiev went to

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Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, after an invitation by a fellow student. In Lebanon, he suffered a severe

car crash A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. T ...

due to a drugged

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

driver; of the six people in the car, only Boyadzhiev survived, although with a broken

backbone The spinal column, also known as the vertebral column, spine or backbone, is the core part of the axial skeleton in vertebrates. The vertebral column is the defining and eponymous characteristic of the vertebrate. The spinal column is a segmente ...

. After his rehabilitation he worked as a make-up man for an

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movie. At age 28–29, he moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France, by becoming a stoker on a Beirut–

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. In France he was a waiter in a

bistro A bistro or bistrot (), in its original Parisian form, is a small restaurant serving moderately priced, simple meals in a modest setting. In more recent years, the term has become used by restaurants considered, by some, to be pretentious. Style ...

; it was at this time that he met filmmaker

René Clair René Clair (; 11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette (), was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. H ...

and went on to work as his assistant for three years. Boyadzhiev also worked in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in the

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as well as

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(as a

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correspondent) and

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

and took his doctor's degree in cinema and television studies from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. In 1963–1964, he started working with the

Bulgarian National Television The Bulgarian National Television ( Bulgarian: Българска национална телевизия, ''Balgarska natsionalna televizia'') or BNT (БНТ), stylized as ·Б·Н·Т· since 2018, is a public television broadcaster of Bulgaria ...

as a news director: among the best-known television programmes he has directed are ''Flight Over the Night'' and Todor Kolev's ''How are we Going to Catch up with the Americans…?''. From 1993 to 1995, he headed the Bulgarian National Television; in 1971–1979, he was the television's head director. He was married two times and had seven daughters, most from women he has not been married to. Three were born in Bulgaria and bear his family name, two were born in the United States, one in France and one in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He died on 23 April 2012 in Sofia.Hacho Boyadzhiev has died, News.bg
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Filmography

* ''Macbeth'' (1978) * ''This Fine Age of Maturity'' (1985) * ''The Man on the Road'' (1987)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyadzhiev, Hacho 1932 births 2012 deaths Bulgarian film directors Bulgarian television personalities Bulgarian screenwriters Bulgarian male screenwriters Film people from Sofia Bulgarian people of Hungarian descent