Macedonian media outlets have reported that Pandur collapsed during a rehearsal for King Lear in Skopje, Macedonia.

Pandur, known for his extravagant, large-scale productions, was by far the most internationally acclaimed Slovenian theatre director, having spent most of his career working abroad, especially in Madrid.

He rocketed to fame with his very first professional production, the 1989 play Sheherazade, which he directed soon after graduating from the Ljubljana Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television.

Sheherazade, which has acquired cult status, travelled Europe and the world, and Pandur was appointed the artistic director of the SNG Maribor theatre in his home town in the same year.

His Maribor phase included productions like Faust, Hamlet, the Divine Comedy, and Carmen, which set new milestones but also exhausted the theatre's finances.

Pandur left Slovenia in 1996 and withdrew from theatre for a few years before launching his own theatre company Pandur.Theatres, which was active above all in Spain.

He did not produce a theatre show in Slovenia again until 2014, when he returned with Richard III + II, one of his bigger successes in recent years, along with Inferno, Barocco, Medea, Caligula, Michelangelo, War and Peace, Tesla Electric Company, Twilight of the Gods and Faust.

Pandur received one of Slovenia's top national art awards, the Prešeren Fund Prize, as well as a host of international awards, such as the Golden Wreath for direction at the MESS international theatre festival in Sarajevo and for best foreign production in Mexico.

He was moreover honoured by Spain in 2011 with the distinguished Order of Isabella the Catholic.