Remembering legendary actor Saeed Jaffrey 1929-2015

Saeed Jaffrey was born in Maler Kotla, Punjab, India on the 8th of January 1929. His versatility and fluency in multiple languages allowed him to straddle radio, stage, television and film in a career that spanned over six decades and more than a hundred and fifty British, American, and Indian movies.

He attended University of Allahabad where he completed his post-graduate degree in history. He also attended the Staff Training Institute of All India Radio. He started his career in drama, as the founder of his own English theatre company called the Unity Theatre, in New Delhi between 1951 and 1956. He also served with All India Radio as Radio Director during this period. He played a wide variety of roles in comedy and drama with equal ease and enthusiasm. His early theatrical work included roles in productions of Tennessee Williams, Fry, Priesty, Wilde, and Shakespeare. In 1956, he finished his studies at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, a premier school of drama. He went to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship and took a second post-graduate degree in drama from the Catholic University in America. With this experience as his base, he took his company on a tour of the United States doing Shakespearean plays in the year 1957. He was the first Indian Actor to have ever done so. He then became an active member of the Actors' Studio in New York. Here, he was noted for his acting in the play "Nights" and his role as the "Nawab" in Granada Television's adaptation of "The Jewel in the Crown".

In the 1960s he made numerous stage appearances and participated in a number of tours. He also started his U.S. television career in these years. He was the director of publicity and advertising for the Government of India in their Tourist Office in the U.S. from 1958 to 1960.During this period he acted in the off-Broadway play "A Tenth of an Inch Make The Difference" written and directed by Rolf Forsberg, who later cast Saeed Jaffrey and his wife Madhur in the noted short films, "Parable" in 1964, and "Stalked", starring Jack Hawkins, in 1968.

He played an instrumental part in bringing together film makers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant and acted in several of their Merchant Ivory Productions films such as The Guru (1969), Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978), The Courtesans of Bombay (1983) and The Deceivers (1988).He broke into Bollywood with Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977) for which he won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award in 1978. His cameo role as the paanwala Lallan Miyan in Chashme Buddoor (1981) won him popularity with Indian audiences. He became a household name in India with his roles in Raj Kapoor's Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985) and Henna (1991), both of which won him nominations for the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award.

During the 1980s and 1990s he was considered to be Britain's highest-profile Asian actor, thanks to his leading roles in the movie My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and television series Tandoori Nights (1985–1987) and Little Napoleons (1994).He is the first Asian to have received British and Canadian Academy Award nominations for acting, and is the first ever to be awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to drama.

He parted ways with his first wife Mehrunima (Madhur Jaffery) in 1965 and later married Jennifer in 1980.Jaffrey died at a hospital in London on 15 November 2015, after collapsing from a brain hemorrhage at his home. He was posthumously conferred with Padma Shri award in January 2016.