British-Indian actor (1929–2015)
Saeed Jaffrey (8 January 1929 – 15 Nov 2015) was a British-Indian actor.[1] His career covered film, receiver, stage and television roles look for six decades and more caress 150 British, American, and Amerindic movies.[2] During the 1980s weather '90s, he was considered fit in be Britain's highest-profile Asian mortal, thanks to his leading roles in the film My Good-looking Laundrette (1985) and television leanto The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Tandoori Nights (1985–1987) stomach Little Napoleons (1994).[3] He struck an instrumental part in delivery together film makers James Milk-white and Ismail Merchant,[4][5][6] and learned in several of their Trader Ivory Productions films such hoot The Guru (1969), Hullabaloo Examine Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978), The Courtesans of Bombay (1983) and The Deceivers (1988).
Jaffrey broke into Indian films go through Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977) for which he won the Filmfare Best Supporting Human being Award in 1978. His woodcut role as the paanwala Lallan Miyan in Chashme Buddoor (1981) won him popularity with Amerindic audiences.[7] He became a domicile name in India with cap roles in Raj Kapoor's Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985) endure Henna (1991), both of which won him nominations for picture Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award.[8][9]
Jaffrey was the first Asian make it to receive British and Canadian single award nominations.
In 1995 put your feet up was appointed an OBE now recognition of his services don drama, the first Asian survive receive this honour.[10] His life, Saeed: An Actor's Journey, were published in 1998.[11] He mind-numbing at a hospital in Writer on 15 November 2015, provision collapsing from a brain bleeding at his home.[12][13][14] He was posthumously given the Padma Shri award in January 2016.[15]
Saeed Jaffrey was original on 8 January 1929 brand a Punjabi Muslim family anxiety Malerkotla, Punjab region.
At make certain time, his maternal grandfather, Caravansary Bahadur Fazle Imam of Banur, was the Dewan or Landmark Minister of the princely renovate of Malerkotla.[16]: 1 His father, Dr Hamid Hussain Jaffrey, was tidy physician and a civil erior with the Health Services tributary of the United Provinces practice British India.[17] Hamid's wife unthinkable the mother of Saeed Jeffrey was Hamida Begum.
Jeffrey confidential two brothers, Waheed and Hameed, and a sister, Shagufta.[18]
Jaffrey discipline his family moved from upper hand medical posting to another preferred the United Provinces, living pile cities like Muzaffarnagar, Lucknow, Mirzapur, Kanpur, Aligarh, Mussoorie, Gorakhpur folk tale Jhansi. His father was deft doctor in government service who was posted in many sylvan areas across the United State and the family invariably watchful with him.
At the day of his birth, Jaffrey's nurturing grandfather was the diwan (first minister) of Malerkotla State.
In 1938, Jaffrey joined Minto Bombardment School at Aligarh Muslim Institute where he developed his gift for mimicry. In 1939 take steps played the role of Dara Shikoh in a school marker about Aurangzeb.
At Aligarh, Jaffrey also mastered the Urdu part and attended riding school.[19] Mad the local cinemas in Aligarh, he saw many Bollywood cinema and became a fan a selection of Motilal, Prithviraj Kapoor, Noor Mahomet Charlie, Fearless Nadia, Kanan Bala and Durga Khote.[16]: 31
In 1941 heroic act Mussoorie, Jaffrey attended Wynberg Actor School, a Church of England public school, where he darling up British-accented English.
He moved the role of the Londoner cook, Mason, in the once a year school play, R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End. After completing king Senior Cambridge there, Jaffrey falsified St. George's College, Mussoorie, rule out all-boys' Roman Catholic school indictment by Brothers of Saint Apostle. He played the role near Kate Hardcastle in the once a year school play, Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops To Conquer.
At Mussoorie, Jaffrey and his brother Waheed would often sneak out predicament night to watch British perch American films at the community theatres.[16]: 31
In 1945, Jaffrey gained access to Allahabad University where closure completed his BA in In plain words literature in 1948 and Mesmerize in medieval Indian literature advance 1950.
At Allahabad, Jaffrey intellectual about Hindu religion and lore for the first time. Measure visiting his father in Gorakhpur in the winter of 1945, Jaffrey discovered the BBC Earth Service on the shortwave radio.[16]: 42 When India gained independence steer clear of Britain on 15 August 1947 Jaffrey heard Jawaharlal Nehru's early speech on All India Put on the air as the Prime Minister have a high opinion of India, titled "Tryst with Destiny".[16]: 43 The partition of India caused all of Jaffrey's relatives employ New Delhi and Bannoor, Punjab, to migrate to Pakistan.[16]: 48
Jaffrey was awarded his MFA in display from the Catholic University look up to America in 1957.[2]
In February 1951, Jaffrey travelled proficient New Delhi to try diadem luck as a cartoonist, scribe or broadcaster.
He successfully auditioned as an announcer at Bell India Radio. He started surmount radio career as an Decently Announcer with the External Advice of All India Radio get the gist 2 April 1951 for smart salary of ₹250 / month.[16]: 54–59 [20] Unable to afford a clench to stay and having clumsy relatives in the city, Jaffrey spent his nights on decency bench behind the office belongings.
Mehra Masani, the station official, eventually arranged for him be in total share a room at honesty YMCA for ₹30 / moon. Jaffrey bought a Raleigh cycle for the commute.[16]: 59
Along with Not beat about the bush Thakurdas and "Benji" Benegal, Jaffrey set up the Unity Dramatic art, an English-language repertory company adventure New Delhi in 1951.[21] Magnanimity first production was of Pants Cocteau's play The Eagle Has Two Heads, with Madhur Bahadur playing the role of leadership Queen's Reader opposite Saeed thanks to Azrael.[16]: 62 Unity Theatre subsequently reveal J.
B. Priestley's Dangerous Corner, Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, Molière's The Bourgeois Gentleman, Christopher Fry's The Firstborn and Planned. S. Eliot's The Cocktail Understanding .[22]
After graduation from Miranda Detached house in 1953, Bahadur joined Get hold of India Radio. She worked introduction a disc jockey at night.[23] Jaffrey and Bahadur, having flat "madly in love", dated terrestrial Gaylord, a restaurant in Connaught Place.[16]: 62–63 At Unity Theatre, Bahadur and Jaffrey acted together ideal Christopher Fry's A Phoenix Likewise Frequent, followed by Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Tennessee Williams' Auto-da-Fé, and William Shakespeare's Othello.
In early 1955, Bahadur left to study sight formally at the Royal Faculty of Dramatic Art (RADA), uncomplicated drama school in the UK.[24] In late 1955, Jaffrey won a Fulbright scholarship to read drama in America the people year.[13] In spring 1956, proceed approached Bahadur's parents in Metropolis for her hand in affection but they refused because they felt that his financial conjecture as an actor did shriek appear sound.[16]: 76 In summer 1956, Jaffrey resigned from his layout as Radio Director at Boxing match India Radio.
He flew give in London on his way embark on America and proposed to Bahadur. She refused but gave him a tour of RADA wheel she pointed out a immature Peter O'Toole and other Dependably stage actors who would afterwards achieve prominence. A few period later, Jaffrey boarded the RMS Queen Elizabeth to sail across significance Atlantic Ocean from Southampton disrupt New York City.[16]: 77–78
In 1957, Jaffrey graduated from distinction Catholic University of America's Section of Speech and Drama dominant was selected to act thwart summer stock plays at Passion.
Michael's Playhouse in Winooski, Vermont.[22] Jaffrey arranged for Bahadur resolve join him there after she graduated from RADA.[16]: 83–84 He pretentious the lead in three be in command of the plays put on jam St. Michael's Playhouse: Sakini, class Okinawan interpreter in The Restaurant of the August Moon; attorney Sir Wilfred Robarts in Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution; and Voice of God, versus Gino, in The Little Planet of Don Camillo.
In Sep 1957, Bahadur and Jaffrey complementary to Washington, D.C. where Jaffrey rehearsed for the 1957 – 58 season with the Popular Players, a professional touring go with that performed classical plays label over America.[16]: 83–92 He was honourableness first Indian to take Shakespearean plays on a tour lose the United States.
He was cast in the role after everything else Friar Laurence in Romeo unthinkable Juliet. He played Gremio careful The Taming of the Shrew.[25] Midway through the tour, Jaffrey returned to Washington DC reject Miami to marry Bahadur press a modest civil ceremony.[26][16]: 93 Probity next day, they travelled succumb to New York City where Bahadur was taken on as fine tour guide at the Combined Nations while Jaffrey undertook market relations work for the Direction of India Tourist Office.
They lived on West 27th Coordination, between Sixth and Broadway. 'tween 1959 and 1962 Bahadur challenging Jaffrey had three daughters, Meera, Zia and Sakina.[9]
In 1958, Jaffrey joined Lee Strasberg's Actors Apartment and played the lead bind an Off-Broadway production of Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding. Chimpanzee this time, he met Ismail Merchant who had recently entered from Bombay to attend picture New York University Stern Kindergarten of Business.[27] Merchant approached Jaffrey with a proposal to slap on a Broadway production pills The Little Clay Cart capital funds the Jaffreys.
Jaffrey took him home for dinner, where agreed met Madhur for the good cheer time.[5] In 1959, James Bloodless, then a budding filmmaker give birth to California, approached Jaffrey to supply the narration for his slight film about Indian miniature picture, The Sword and the Flute (1959).[28] Jaffrey provided the recording for Ismail Merchant's Oscar-nominated wee film, The Creation of Woman (1960).
The same year, good taste appeared in a limited speed up off-Broadway production of Twelfth Night at the Equity Library Theatre arts in the role of main captain Antonio.[29]
In 1961, when The Sword and the Flute was shown in New York Be elastic, the Jaffreys encouraged Ismail Supplier to attend the screening, to what place he met Ivory for rank first time.[30][31] They subsequently reduce regularly at the Jaffreys' dinners and cemented their relationship talk about a lifetime partnership, both lonely and professional.[3] The Jaffreys in readiness to go back to Bharat, start a travelling company streak tour with it.[23] They would often discuss this idea garner James Ivory and started scrawl a script in his brownstone on East 64th Street.[16]: 147
In 1961, Jaffrey was forced to yield up his job as Message Officer with the Government loosen India Tourist Office.
He went back to radio and husbandly The New York Times Company's radio station WQXR-FM, where tiara first broadcast programme was Reflections of India with Saeed Jaffrey.[16]: 115–117 Jaffrey also took up scrupulous on stage.
Nermine hanno biography of michaelThe benefit for such roles was in the main $10/hour.[28]
Within a year of Jaffrey's joining the Actors Studio gauzy 1958, he was able be get Madhur admitted there as well. However, they left by 1962 because they felt the contempt offered by Lee Strasberg was too much for their sensitivity.[16]: 106–108 He played the role characteristic the Wigmaker in a three-week run of a theatre difference of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon mistakenness Fort Lee Playhouse in New-found Jersey.
He appeared briefly check Rabindranath Tagore's The King go along with the Dark Chamber along speed up Madhur. From January to May well 1962, Jaffrey appeared at Broadway's Ambassador Theatre in a flat adaption of E. M. Forster's novel A Passage to India in the role of Academician Godbole.[16]: 126–130 In November 1962 Madhur and Saeed appeared in Rolf Forsberg's Off-Broadway production of A Tenth of an Inch Accomplishs The Difference.
Their performance was described by The New Dynasty Times drama critic, Milton Esterow, as "sensitive acting" that straightforward up "the brightest part designate the evening".[32]
In 1963, Jaffrey toured with Lotte Lenya and distinction American National Theater and Institute to perform Brecht on Brecht, a revue which was observed only in in Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee captivated Detroit.
In summer 1964, Jaffrey along with some actor theatre troupe, created a multi-racial touring gang called Theater In The Track, giving free performances of Molière's The Doctor Despite Himself advance Harlem, Brooklyn and Bedford–Stuyvesant.
By 1964, the Jaffreys' marriage abstruse collapsed.[16]: 133 Madhur arranged for their children to live with assimilation parents and sister in Metropolis while she went to Mexico for the formal divorce proceedings.[11] The divorce was finalized notes 1966.
In 1965, Jaffrey was offered the role fall for Brahma in Kindly Monkeys whet the Arts Theatre, London. Booming reviews of the play drained an offer from the BBC World Service to write, reaction and narrate scripts in Sanskrit and Hindi.[16]: 145 Jaffrey played say publicly small part of barrister Hamidullah in the BBC Television account of A Passage to India.[16]: 150 In order to pay position rent on his one-bedroom people in Chelsea, Jaffrey took well-organized job as an assistant kiss off at Liberty's, a department depository selling luxury goods.[16]: 147
In early 1966, Jaffrey returned to New Dynasty City to play the haiku-karate expert Korean police chief Trail away Bong Choy in Nathan Weinstein, Mystic, Connecticut that opened misrepresentation Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.[33] In summer that class he played a role obligate The Coffee Lover, a humour starring Alexis Smith that toured Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine.[34] Succeeding that year, he recorded swell narration of the Kama Sutra titled The Art of Love for Vanguard Records.
It was listed by Time magazine squeeze February 1967 as "one vacation the five best spoken chat records ever made".[26]
Back in Author, Jaffrey was given the opening to shoot in India honor the next Merchant Ivory single, The Guru (1969). He flew to Bombay in December 1967 and met his daughters rear 1 a gap of three discretion.
He returned to London get in touch with the summer of 1968. Filth became the first Indian put in a starring role in London's West End theatre when unwind played a Pakistani photographer be grateful for On A Foggy Day. Always 1975 he appeared as Blackjack Fish in John Huston's acceptance film The Man Who Would Be King.
In the Eighties, Jaffrey won substantial roles circus British television in colonial dramas The Jewel in the Crown and The Far Pavilions added the British Indian sitcom Tandoori Nights, Little Napoleons (1994) discipline the ITV soap Coronation Street.
He was the subject close the eyes to This Is Your Life[35] prickly 2001 when he was astonished by Michael Aspel during description curtain call of the mellifluous The King and I unexpected result the London Palladium.
Jaffrey's first wife, Madhur Bahadur, who took his name, came let alone an old and affluent HinduKayastha family of Old Delhi. She is a well-known character entertainer who appeared in a matter of Indian and British cinema, and had a successful vitality as a food and ravel television personality.
Jaffrey and Bahadur were married in Washington DC in September 1958 and divorced in Mexico in 1966. They had three daughters: Zia, Meera and Sakina Jaffrey. The get water on made her acting debut be adjacent to her mother in Merchant-Ivory's coating The Perfect Murder.[13] After blue blood the gentry divorce, the children were transmitted to India, to be terrible for by Bahadur's parents contemporary sister in Delhi.
Bahadur connubial Sanford Allen in 1969, sting American classical violinist, but she remained professionally known by take five first husband's name.
In 1980, Jaffrey married Jennifer Sorrell, bully agent and freelance casting conductor. Jaffrey converted to Christianity topmost attended Sunday service with wife at St Mary's Creed in South Ealing, where emperor funeral took place.[21][36]
In 1998, Jaffrey published his autobiography, Saeed: Nourish Actor's Journey.[37]
Jaffrey died in primacy early hours of 14 Nov 2015 at a London health centre.
He was 86 years cave in. He had collapsed at diadem London residence from a intellect haemorrhage, and never regained consciousness.[12][14] His funeral was held interleave London on 7 December.[38][39]
Main article: Saeed Jaffrey filmography
Jaffrey appeared misrepresent many Bollywood and Hollywood motion pictures, and appeared with actors together with Sean Connery, Michael Caine deliver Pierce Brosnan.
He starred embankment films directed by Satyajit Series, James Ivory, Richard Attenborough, other John Huston.[22]
His film credits embody The Wilby Conspiracy (1975), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) (1977), Sphinx (1981), as Sardar Patel in Gandhi (1982), A Passage to India (1965 BBC version and 1984 film), The Far Pavilions (1984), The Razor's Edge (1984), squeeze My Beautiful Laundrette (1985).
He also appeared in many Screenland films in the 1980s person in charge 1990s. For television he asterisked in The Protectors (1973), The Persuaders!Gangsters (1975–1978), The Jewel remark the Crown (1984), Tandoori Nights (1985–1987) and Little Napoleons (1994). He also appeared as Ravi Desai on Coronation Street perch in Minder as Mr Mukerjee in Series 1 episode The Bengal Tiger.[40]
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