Fahimeh Rastkar (20 March 1932 – 22 November 2012) was an Iranian actress and dubbing artist.

Fahima Rastkar was born on March 20, 1933 in Tehran. She was a graduate of "Acting School" (under the supervision of Mehdi Namdar) and after that she continued her activity with independent groups such as Shahin Sarkisian Theater Group.

Ali Nasirian, Bijan Mofid, Abbas Jovanmard, Sadroddin Elahi, Rafat Hashempour, Jafar Vali, Jamshid Layegh, Feridoun Saghafi, Parviz Bahram and Houshang Latifpour were among her classmates at the "Acting School". Then she continued her studies in the French language department of Tehran University, but dropped it halfway.

She studied French and began her work in theater and dubbing activity in 1951 and stepped into the world of cinema in 1973.

Her first theatrical experience began with the performance of The Glass Zoo by Tennessee Williams, directed by S. Davidson at the Iranian-American Association in Tehran, as well as working as dubbing artist since 1956 at the invitation of Houshang Latifpour, and she was tasked to do her first voice-over for Irene Pappas in "Theodora". It was under the supervision of Abolghasem Rezaei in Film Studio (now House of Cinema).

Then, in the same studio, in the Russian version of "Othello" directed by Houshang Latifpour, she voiced Desdemona (played by Irina Skobtseva), the dubbing of this film was of very good quality and was noticed.

In 1957, at Alex Aghababian's invitation, along with Manouchehr Zamani, Nahid Bostani and Mohammad Reza Zandi, she went to Italy to dub movies into Farsi, and she was engaged in this profession in Italy for four years. After coming back to Iran, she continued her work as a professional dubber. In 1960s, she played as an actress in many films and was also an active performer on theater stage.

Rastkar did the voice over for Katharine Hepburn in "Lion in Winter", Ingrid Bergman in "Do You Love Brahms?", Melina Mercury in "Never on Sunday", Ava Gardner in "The Barefoot Countessa", Janet Leigh in "Psycho", Sophia Loren in "The Millionairess", Hattie McDaniel (as a black nanny) in "Gone with the Wind", Ingrid Thulin in "Wild Strawberries", Martha Scott in "Ben-Hur", Iran Daftari in "Gheisar" and Nosrat Partovi in "Gavaznha". These are some of her most memorable dubbing works. "The Long Day's Journey into Night", "The Second Man", "Antigone", "The Fear and Misery of the Third Reich", "Man, Animal and Piety", "The House of Bernarda Alba", "Orgast", "The Dream", "Farbandan" , "Woe to the defeated" and... are among the plays she acted in.

In 1972, Rastkar was one of the actors in the opening ceremony of "Theatre Shahr" where Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" was staged by Arby Ovanessian.

In 1973, she played the director's wife in Parviz Kimiavi's "The Mongols" ; she did not act in any other movie until after the 1979 revolution and preferred to focus her main activity on dubbing and theater.

She was married to Najaf Daryabandari, a veteran Iranian translator with whom she collaborated in writing the "Ketab-e Mostatab-e Ashpazi" in 2 volumes, one of the best and most comprehensive books on cooking that has been published in Iran so far.

Among some of her notable performances as dubbing artist in the years after the 1979 are providing the voice over for the Japanese television drama Oshin and Miss Marple in the series "Ms. Marple", which were well received by the audience.

Fahima Rastkar died on Thursday, November 22, 2012 after a long period of Alzheimer's disease, at the age of 78, in her private home. Her body was buried on Friday 23 November in Behesht Sakineh cemetery, Karaj.


Selected filmography

Actress

Shirin (2008)
Gis Borideh (2006)
Razha (2005)
Was a Star | Setareh Bood (2004)
In Rahash Nist (2003), TV Series
A Girl Named Tondar | Dokhtari be nam-e Tondar (2000)
Zan-e Sharghi (1997)
Ravani (1997)
Bibi Yoon (1995)
Alo!Alo! Man joojoo-am (1995)
Morgh va Hamsayeh (1991)
Eshgh va marg (1990)
Mahmoole (1988)
Jahizieh Baraye Robab (1987)
Stony Lion | Shir Sangi (1987)
Toranj (1986)
Khatt-e payan (1986)
Aghaye hiroglyphe (1980)
The Mongols | Mogholha (1973)