Russia's top theater director Yuri Lyubimov was proclaimed dead after incurring a heart failure in a Moscow hospital.

The theater director died at age 97, after playing an important role in Russia’s theater scene for half a century. Lyubimov was the founder of the Taganka Theater in Moscow and has headed the scene for 50 years before quitting in 2011.

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The theater icon was best known for his inventive and highly innovative shows with post Soviet Russia influence towards the new generation of audience.

In a statement issued by the Botkinskaya Hospital in Moscow, health officials confirmed Lyubimov’s death after being brought to the health facility last week.

Yuri Lyubimov was born in 1917 before the revolution in the country. During the 1960’s, he started directing advanced theater productions. The director also worked with some of the greatest names in Soviet and Russian culture including Vsevolod Meyerhold, writer Boris Pasternak and Dmitry Shostakovich.

The iconic theater director was also able to direct a number of world-renowned plays adapted from Russian novels. However, several theater productions were banned by authorities after depicting resistance during the Soviet orthodox era.

In 1984, Lyubimov was exiled after being stripped off of his citizenship. This was after he criticized the Soviet culture policies shown in a play in London. Lyubimov also aired his opposing views with Soviet’s policies during an interview with British newspaper The Times. He spent half a decade in exile and administering opera and theater shows in the US and Europe.

Yuri Lyubimov returned triumphantly to Russia in 1988.

Russian President Vladimir Putin extended his sympathies to the bereaved family of the top theater director. According to the president’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, Putin said Lyubimov played an important role in the development and growth of contemporary Russian theater.

TagsRussia, London, Europe, Dmitry Shostakovich, Boris Pasternak, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Yuri Lyubimov, Dmitry Peskov, Contemporary Russian Theater, RIA Novosti, Taganka Theater, Moscow, Botkinskaya Hospital