[4][6] At Armenia's only Russian theater, he played around 30 roles, most notably as Vanya Kudryash in The Storm by Alexander Ostrovsky, Sergey in An Irkutsk Story by Aleksei Arbuzov, Actor in The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky.

[6] "From the beginning of his stage career, Dzhigarkhanyan has demonstrated an awesome versatility, succeeding in a wide variety of roles in the classical and contemporary repertory, including Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, and modern Russian authors.

The finest roles from this period include Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, Lord Bothwell in Robert Bolt's Vivat!

[6] Dzhigarkhanyan has also directed combination companies and has played the roles of General in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Gambler and the main character in Filumena Marturano by Eduardo De Filippo at the Lenkom Theatre.

Usta Mukuch, the role of an old blacksmith he created in Triangle (Yerankyuni, 1967) directed by famed Armenian director Henrik Malyan, paved the way for dozens of films in later decades.

The 1973 comedy The Men, directed by Edmond Keosayan, became one of the most iconic Armenian films of the late Soviet period and today, a statue of its leading characters stands in central Yerevan.

[7] By the early 1970s, Dzhigarkhanyan had become one of the most popular Soviet film actor who appeared in more than 200 roles, covering all genres from situational comedy to historical adventure, psychological drama, thriller, and quality literary adaptation, moving effortlessly from trivial entertainment to sophisticated art.

In the five-part TV miniseries The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979), starring all-time favorite Vladimir Vysotsky, Dzhigarkhanyan played a thief in law, which made him more popular to the general Soviet public.

[5][4] He also appeared in a leading role in the joint Soviet-French Teheran 43 (1981) alongside Claude Jade as his mysterious young mistress and Curd Jürgens as his lawyer.

[23][24] Presidents of Russia Vladimir Putin[25] and Armenia Armen Sarkissian,[26] Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan[27] and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin[28] issued messages of condolence.

[33] According to Peter Rollberg, Professor of Slavic Languages, Film Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs, "Dzhigarkhanyan's characters usually are distinguished by stoicism, irony, and a quiet inner strength, irradiating a rough charm that has only grown with age.

"[5] With the deaths of Frunzik Mkrtchyan (1993), Khoren Abrahamyan (2004) and Sos Sargsyan (2013), Dzhigarkhanyan remained the last major Armenian actor of the Soviet era.

[34] In his birthday congratulation in 2005, Armenia's second president Robert Kocharyan stated that Dzhigarkhanyan's "great popularity" is "due to [his] talent and devoted work".

Today, inexhaustible creative energy, the ability to integrate talented people to help you in your work with the company of one of the most popular Moscow theaters in the education of the younger generation of domestic actors.

"In 2012, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin congratulated Dzhigarkhanyan on his birthday and described him as "an outstanding actor and talented director" who "over many years of service to the stage and screen made a huge contribution to the development of Russian culture.

[44] In reference to the large number of films in which he has appeared, prominent Soviet Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian once stated, "[Whenever] you turn on the iron, Dzhigarkhanyan is there!