Badiyi came to the United States in 1955 at the age of 25 to pursue a film career. In 1963, he started directing and over six decades handled 430 television episodes plus four feature films and more than 60 documentaries.
His television credits included such series as Mission Impossible, Star Trek, Baywatch, Falcon Crest, Starsky and Hutch, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Hawaii Five-O. At Badiyi’s 80th birthday party last year, Lou Ferrigno, who played the role of The Incredible Hulk, was one of many actors and actresses to show up to honor Badiyi. Ferrigno, who was directed by Badiyi in eight episodes, did not come in his green skin.
Badiyi died surrounded by his immediate family at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. The family said he died of medical complications.
Badiyi was born in Arak April 17, 1930, and graduated from the Academy of Drama in Tehran.
Once in the United States, Badiyi attended Syracuse University where he completed his filmmaking studies. But it wasn’t until he met filmmaker Robert Altman, one of America’s most prolific filmmakers, that he got a boost in the industry, becoming Altman’s protégée and lifelong friend.
Badiyi was married to actress/screenwriter Barbara Turner from 1968 to 1985. Their daughter, Mina Badie, is pursuing an acting career and his stepdaughter is Hollywood actress Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Monsters and Critics, an independent web-only news and review publication, asked Badiyi a few years ago if his family in Iran supported his career choice. He explained that he came from a family with a background in medicine but that he decided to forge a new career path for himself. “My father was a pharmacist and my brother was a doctor. They hoped I would, too, go into the field of medicine, but I had no interest in it, even though that was my major in university.
“While attending university, I secretly signed up for drama school and eagerly attended classes. After a few semesters, I confronted my father and told him I wanted to be an actor.
“My parents were very surprised and didn’t instantly warm to the idea. However, shortly after, I received a Gold Medal from the Shah of Iran for my acting abilities. Needless to say, my parents were very proud and realized that this was my passion and the field I was meant to be involved in, so they gave me their blessing and were very supportive.
“Later on, I went from acting to cinematography and had the honor of being the Shah’s personal cinematographer and traveled all over the country with him,” Badiyi said.
When asked about the most interesting film he directed in Iran, Badiyi said, “I made 21 documentaries before my move to the US, but one documentary that stands out is called ‘Flood In Khuzestan.’ My assistant and I traveled to Khuzestan and spent a week there shooting everything we could….
“We shot the whole piece on 16mm black and white film. The documentary was selected by the Red Cross internationally. They ended up adding narration to the piece and screened the documentary all over the world in order to bring awareness to the disastrous flooding. When the US State Department saw the documentary, they invited me to come to the US to study filmmaking.”
Badiyi also spoke of his involvement in various projects and touched on films and series he was especially proud to work on.
“‘Mission Impossible’ came about at a time where we were using images differently than before. We would use extreme focusing and close-ups in order to accurately convey to the audience the actors’ feelings, thoughts and actions. It was also a time of breakthrough visual-effects, so I had the opportunity to do things I hadn’t done before; it was great. I let my imagination run wild and it worked and the audiences loved it.
“‘Hawaii Five-0’ was very exciting too, especially with the location being as beautiful as it was and the breathtaking stunts—everyone fell in love with the show and the stunts became huge.”
When asked about American misconceptions about Iranians during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Badiyi said, “I suffered greatly during that time, even though I was in the US and the number of years I had spent in Iran was less than I had spent in the US. That being said, I never wanted to change my name or deny my nationality.
“There was a lot of pressure from the industry as well—one of the networks removed me from a film I was working on due to my nationality. I was so hurt by the incident that I left and moved to London for a while. My friends kept calling, asking me to come back—it took some time, but I finally decided to return and continue to pursue my career in the US.”
But Badiyi also pointed out Iranian misconceptions about Americans. “There are a lot of misconceptions due to the fact that Iranians living in Iran can’t speak freely about their thoughts on the Western world. Iran’s population consists mostly of young educated individuals who love America—the music, the food, the people, the arts—however, that isn’t always talked about. The government is its own entity and most Iranians living in Iran have different views and beliefs about America and the world…. Most of their choices in music, fashion, etc. are influenced greatly by the Western world such as the US,” Badiyi said.
Badiyi came to the United States on an official government invitation. “When the US Government invited me, I was one of the students from 18 countries asked to come to the US to study in the field of motion pictures.…
“I was sent to the State Department for a week-long class on leadership—they would send high ranked professors from Columbia and George Washington Universities to talk to us…
“After the week was over, I was sent to Syracuse and then to Kansas City to work at the Calvin Company—a Kansas City, Missouri-based educational and industrial film production company that for nearly half a century was the largest and most successful film producer of its type in the United States. My first day at the Calvin Company, I was introduced to different departments, when I came across a young director, Robert Altman.
“I noticed that he was shooting with very primitive cameras. Shocked, I went up to him and asked him to shoot with my camera called Arriflex, which was the newest and most innovative camera at that time.
“Robert gave it a try and was very impressed with my knowledge and skills. He asked me where I was staying during my visit and I told him the YMCA. He then invited me to come live with him and his family, which I agreed to….
“Robert became my best friend and mentor and, shortly after, asked the State Department to sign me over to him. We grew very close and he asked me to be his assistant director in the film he was working on at the time, ‘The Delinquents,’ which was the very exciting start of my career here in the US,” Badiyi told Monsters and Critics. That was Altman’s directorial debut. Altman died in 2006.
Badiyi spoke about how things have progressed in the American film industry from years ago when the industry was not sympathetic to Iranian stories.
“There are many fascinating and educated Iranians that are getting into the film industry and can accurately tell Iranian stories. It wasn’t too long ago that you couldn’t emphasize Iran in films and any film with the Iranian fingerprint was quickly passed up by the industry execs. But now, things have changed and we are in a new era of hope and understanding,” Badiyi said.
