Prominent Armenian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor Albert Mkrtchyan died following a long illness on Wednesday, February 28, one day after his 81th birthday.

The information was confirmed by the theater named after his brother, Mher Mkrtchyan.

Mkrtchyan was born in 1937 in Leninakan (now Gyumri) in the Armenian SSR.

He has directed and written a number of successful films, including “The Tango of Our Childhood” (1985), “The Song of the Old Days” (1982) and “Breath” (1989).