Vasil (Vaso) Abashidze (Georgian: ვასო (ვასილ) აბაშიძე; Russian: Васи́лий Абаши́дзе) (4 December 1854 – 9 October 1926) was a Georgian theater actor and a founder of a realistic acting tradition in Georgia.

Born in Dusheti, Georgia, then part of Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire, Abashidze worked as a teacher in Kutaisi and Azerbaijan.

His best roles included Famusov (Griboyedov’s Woe from Wit), Khlestakov (Gogol’s The Government Inspector), Belogubov and Iusov (Alexander Ostrovsky’s A Lucrative Post), and Tartuffe and Argan (Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid).

He translated and adapted over 42 comedies and vaudevilles, and in 1885 he founded the theatrical paper Teatri ("The Theater").

[2] He died in Tbilisi and he is buried at the Mtatsminda Pantheon of Writers and Public Figures.