Mehrdad Pahlbod

{{Short description|Iranian politician (1917–2018)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Infobox royalty | name = Mehrdad Pahlbod | image = Mehrdad Pahlbod 2.jpg | caption = Pahlbod {{circa|1977}} | imagesize = | birth_name = Ezatollah Minbashian | birth_date = 16 March 1917 | birth_place = Tehran, Sublime State of Iran | death_date = {{death date and age|2018|8|9|1917|3|16|df=y}} | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | spouse = {{marriage|Shams Pahlavi|1945|1996|reason=died}} | issue = Shahbaz Pahlbod<br>Shahyar Pahlbod<br>Shahrzad Pahlbod | religion = | father = Nasrollah Minbashian | module = {{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes | alma_mater = University of Lausanne | office = Minister of Culture | prime_minister = Hassan Ali Mansur <br/> Amir-Abbas Hoveyda <br/> Jamshid Amouzegar | monarch = Mohammad Reza Pahlavi | term_start = 7 March 1964 | term_end = 27 August 1978 }} | successor = }} '''Mehrdad Pahlbod''' ({{Langx|fa|مهرداد پهلبد}}; 16 March 1917 – 9 August 2018) was an Iranian politician who served as the first culture minister of Iran from 1964 until 1978.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fis-iran.org/en/content/pahlbod-mehrdad|title=Oral History Interview: Mehrdad Pahlbod|publisher=FIS|access-date=9 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="rfi">{{Cite web |url=http://fa.rfi.fr/%D9%85%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D9%BE%D9%87%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%8C-%D9%88%D8%B2%DB%8C%D8%B1-%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%87%D9%86%DA%AF-%D9%88-%D9%87%D9%86%D8%B1-%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%BE%D9%87%D9%84%D9%88%DB%8C-%D9%88-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%B1%D8%B6%D8%A7-%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%8C-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D9%84%D9%8F%D8%B3-%D8%A2%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%B3-%D8%AF%D8%B1%DA%AF%D8%B0%D8%B4%D8%AA-20180810/%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86 |title=مهرداد پهلبد، وزیر فرهنگ و هنر دوران پهلوی و داماد رضا شاه، در لُس آنجلس درگذشت|date=10 August 2018|website=fa.rfi.fr |language=fa}}</ref>

==Early life== Pahlbod was born '''Ezatollah Minbashian''' (Persian: عزت‌الله مین‌باشیان) on 16 March 1917 in Tehran to Nasrollah Minbashian, a military officer who served as deputy director of the Imperial Iranian Army Band Corps. His grandfather, Gholam-Hossein Minbashian, a professional violinist, was the conductor of Tehran City Hall Symphony Orchestra and served for many years as the director of the Tehran Conservatory of Music. As a result of this background, Pahlbod grew up playing the violin, later graduating from Firooz Bahram High School. His brother was Fathollah Minbashian.

== Career == Pahlbod studied architecture in Switzerland at the University of Lausanne. In 1956 he became the vice president of the Persian Fine Arts Administration in Tehran, which later became the Iranian Ministry of Culture.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}} Until 1961, he served as a deputy at the Ministry of Education. Between March 1964 and January 1965, Pahlbod was the deputy prime minister of Hassan Ali Mansur.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Chronology December 16, 1963 - March 15, 1964|journal=Middle East Journal|year=1964|volume=18|issue=2|page=218|jstor=4323704|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4323704}}</ref> He was also the minister for culture and the arts between 1965 and 1978.

== Personal life == Pahlbod was the second husband of Princess Shams Pahlavi. During a trip to Egypt in the 1950s, the couple secretly converted to Catholicism from Shia Islam.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y85tAAAAMAAJ|title=The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1969-1977|author=Asadollah Alam|year=1991|publisher=I. B. Tauris|isbn=9781850433408|author-link=Asadollah Alam}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OCxpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA437|title=Henry Cowell: A Man Made of Music|author=Joel Sachs|date=11 July 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-997683-6}}</ref> They had two sons and one daughter.

In the years following the Iranian Revolution, Pahlbod and his wife lived in exile in Santa Barbara, California. His wife passed away from cancer in 1996.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1996-03-03 |title=Princess Shams Pahlavi; Red Cross Leader, Shah's Sister |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-03-03-mn-42531-story.html |access-date= |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> Pahlbod was living in Los Angeles when he died on 9 August 2018 at the age of 101.<ref name="rfi" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} * [https://books.google.com/books?id=ixU33FaG_dgC&dq=mehrdad+pahlbod&pg=PA216 Mehrdad Pahlbod: ''Eminent Persians'' by Abbas Milani]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pahlbod, Mehrdad}} Category:1917 births Category:2018 deaths Category:Culture ministers of Iran Category:Politicians from Tehran Category:Iranian emigrants to the United States Category:Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in the United States Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Shia Islam Category:Iranian Roman Catholics Category:Iranian men centenarians Category:20th-century Iranian politicians Category:People of Pahlavi Iran