Saeed Jaffrey, the Indian-born British actor who starred in more than 150 films, has passed away aged 86.
Jaffrey is best known for his roles in Bollywood and British cinema such as Gandhi, The Chess Players and A Passage to India.
He also appeared in the British soap Coronation Street in 1999 as the character Ravi Desai, forming part of the first Asian family to appear in the long-running soap.
Jaffrey was born in 1929 in Malerkotla, Punjab. He established an English-language theatre company in New Delhi before temporarily locating to the USA where he became the first Indian to appear on Broadway.
He later moved to Britain where he starred in a number of films and was awarded an OBE for contributions to drama in 1995, become the first Asian actor to do so.
He was married to the actress and cookery writer Madhur Jaffrey from 1958 to 1966. The two had three children Zia, Meera and Sakina – who is an actress in the hit Netflix series House of Cards.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi led tributes to Jaffrey, praising him as “a multifaceted actor whose flair and versatility will always be remembered”.
His death was announced by his niece Shaheen Aggarwal on Facebook. Jaffrey is survived by his wife, the casting director Jennifer Jaffrey, and his three children.
