Ismayil Afandiyev was born in 1910 in Shamakhi. After working for a time in theatre in Ganja, he was hired by the film studio in 1939, where he worked in various roles for the rest of his life. In 1935 he appeared in director A. M. Sharifzade's film comedy 'The Game of Love', creating the character of the lover Sattar. He went on to create various characters as an actor in such feature films as 'New Horizon', 'Sabuhi', 'Son of the Motherland', 'Bakhtiyar', 'Black Stones', 'Under the Scorching Sun', 'Labour and the Rose' and 'Man Makes His Home', among others. His roles as Suleyman in 'Arshin Mal Alan', Hamza in 'Fatali Khan' and Hasangulu bay in 'Not That One, This One' brought the actor fame. I. Afandiyev also worked as second director on the feature film 'Bakhtiyar', and together with Sh. Sheykhov directed the adventure film 'Shadows Are Crawling'. He also made several documentary films and dubbed some 200 foreign films into Azerbaijani. In 1946 he travelled to Tabriz, where he staged several plays. He died in 1967.
