Nodar Shashigoghlu was born on 13 March 1927 in Batumi. His grandfather was among the well-known nobility of Adjara, and his father was a tsarist officer. His uncle, the actor Ulvi Rajab, was subjected to repression in 1937. Ulvi Rajab's wife, Marziyya Davudova, also worked in Azerbaijani theatre. Although originally from Adjara, he lived in Tbilisi. There he finished secondary school and later the Shchukin Theatre Institute. After graduating, he worked for just one year at the Vakhtangov Theatre. He then worked for five to six years at the Taganka Theatre. His first role was in a film made at "Mosfilm" about Georgi Skanderbeg, the founder of Albanian statehood, in which he played Mehmet bey the Conqueror, founder of the Ottoman Empire. He then played the lead role in Sergei Parajanov's directorial debut, the film "Andriesh". After this film he worked at the "Odessa" film studio. Director Rashid Atamalibeyov (who was second director of the film "On Distant Shores") came to the filming of "On Distant Shores". Taking a liking to the actor, he cast him in the film. On the theatre stage, Nodar Shashigoghlu created the roles of Don Juan (A. S. Pushkin, "Little Tragedies"), Cyrano (E. Rostand, "Cyrano de Bergerac") and Creon ("Antigone" by G. Hauptmann), and in cinema the roles of Zakir in "The Telephone Girl", Rakov in "Five Corners", Majnun in "Leyli and Majnun", and Mikhailo in "On Distant Shores". From 2003 he returned to the Samad Vurgun Russian Drama Theatre and gave brilliant performances on stage as Sorin (A. P. Chekhov, "The Seagull") and King Lear (W. Shakespeare, "King Lear"). He died in Baku on 12 April 2013.
