Shakibai's performance in Hamoun marked a turning point in his career. He received a Crystal Simorgh at Fajr International Film Festival for his portrayal of Hamoun , a literary intellectual who gradually loses his touch with reality and becomes entrapped into an obsessive and destructive conflict with his estranged wife whom he deeply loves. Shakibai played also in some major television series. He won a Crystal Phoenix for Kimia (The Philosopher's Stone) (1994) directed by Ahmad-Reza Darvish .
Shakibai found also a considerable following for his voice, brought about through publication of the recordings of his readings of poems by such luminaries of the modern Persian poetry as Forough Farrokhzad and Sohrab Sepehri .
Shakibai is credited for helping to raise the stature of performing arts in Iran by the end of the 1980s, when the authorities in charge tended to neglect this area of cultural activities.
He married twice. From his first marriage with the actress Tanya Joharí he has one daughter named Poupak, and from his second marriage with Parvin Koush'yar one son named Pourya.
Khosrow Shakibai died at 6 am on July 18, 2008, of liver cancer in Parsian Hospital in Tehran. Earlier it had been reported that Shakibai's death had been a consequence of his heart failure. Parviz Jahed in an article with the title The Play is Over ( Bazi tamam shodeh ast ), published by Radio Zamaneh (dated July 19, 2008), refers to Khosrow Shakibai's severe dependency on drugs and suggests that Shakibai's premature death is likely to have been precipitated by this dependency. It has further been reported that on October 5, 2007, Khosrow Shakibai had been admitted to a hospital for suffering from diabetes , however on his explicit request the press had withheld this information from public.
On Sunday, July 20, 2008, the body of Khosrow Shakibai was laid to rest in The Artists Section of Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery in Tehran. His funeral procession began at 9 am from Vahdat Hall ( Talar-e Vahdat ), Hafez Street, in Tehran.
