Two actors popular on Armenian television died Monday around midnight when the car in which they traveled crashed on the Echmiadzin-Armavir highway.

Dead at the scene was Gegham Ghandilyan, 35 known to thousands of Armenians as Gokor, the character he portrayed on Vorogayt (Trap), a series based on gangster life.

Also killed immediately was Aram Miskaryan, 36, who played Garik in the same series.
Cameraman Edgar Ter-Adamyan, 26, was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The Armenian Rescue Service reported that the victims BMW was speeding when driver Ter-Adamyan lost control and hit trees.

Vachagan Mkrtchyan, hospital director in Echmiadzin, told ArmeniaNow that Ter-Adamyan was transferred to hospital in Yerevan where he was listed in stable but serious condition.

Friends of the actors gathered outside the Republican Forensic Medicine Examination Center, where the bodies were taken.

The forensic doctor said that so far nothing suspicious has emerged and that it was, in fact, an accident, says one of their co-stars who preferred to remain unknown.Garik and Gokor, played subjects loyal to an underworld lord (known as thief in law in the language of Soviet times). Miskaryan and Ghandilyans characters were routinely fending themselves against attempts on their lives.

I do not believe in providence, but whatever their enemies did not manage to do in the series, cruel fate did it, Armen Marutyan, playing in the same soap opera, told ArmeniaNow.

They (Gokor and Garik) were our favorites; they were intelligent, modest, and talented. It simply should not have happened, adds Marutyan, who works at the Sundukyan State Academic Theatre of Yerevan.

Neither man was a professional actor. Miskaryan (Garik) was a sportsman, head of Armenias Tae Kwon Do Federation. Ghandilyan (Gokor) was jeweler by profession.

Neither man was married nor had children. (less info)