SyrianDays:
The Syrian Drama has lost one of its creative artists, actor Khaled Taja, who passed away at the age of seventy three, leaving behind a rich legacy of artistic achievements.The well-known Syrian actor Khaled Taja passed away yesterday after a long suffering from illness. Taja suffered severe pneumonia for the last two weeks, as he was preparing rehearsals for an upcoming TV drama. He was taken immediately to the Shami Hospital in Damascus, later he passed away. The renowned actor was born in Damascus, 1939. He started his career as an actor in "the Truck Driver" film in 1966, and then he starred in several films.
Taja is one of the most brilliant drama actors to come from Syria. As a child, he was obsessed with art, and haunted by acting and drama to a point that he started his professional work at the age of 17. He began his drama mission in theater as an actor and writer at the same time. He was fond of the small details in the lives of the poor, the simple humble people and the oppressed.
Taja had powerful works of TV drama, among them al-Taghriba al-Filastinea, or the Palestinian Exodus, Brothers of Soil, Damascene Days, al-Zeir Salem, Four Seasons, Spot Light, Time of Shame and Days of General director.
Khaled Taja was one of 12 leading Syrian actors who managed to visit Gaza and offer his solidarity to the actors at the theatre of Gaza, and he is one of the few actors who have been able to translate the social aspirations of the average Arab citizen.
He remains such an icon in the Arab world drama that Mahmud Darwish, the late Palestinian poet, described him as ‘the Anthony Quinn of the Arab world. He was even chosen in 2004 among the best fifty actors in the world. Taja lived the characters he played, and brought them to life. He played diverse complex multilayered roles thus harvesting many awards, in Egypt and Syria. He became a gigantic drama figure especially in his documentary roles that offered an insight of the colonial history in the Middle East with much of the focus on Palestine and Syria.