1. Early life

2. Career
    Early career  Later career 

3. Death

4. Legacy

5. Filmography

6. Awards

7. See also

8. References

9. External links

10. Further reading

Mehmood Ali (29 September 1932 – 23 July 2004), popularly known simply as Mehmood, was an Indian actor, singer, director and producer best known for playing comic roles in Hindi films. During his career of more than four decades, he worked in over 300 Hindi films. Mehmood received 25 Nominations for filmfare awards, 19 for 'Best Performance in a Comic Role', while the awards started in 1954, awards for the best comedian category started only in 1967. Prior to that Mehmood also received 6 nominations for 'Best Supporting Actor'.

Early life

Mehmood was one of eight children born to Latifunnisa and film and stage actor-come-dancer Mumtaz Ali, who was a huge star of the 40's and 50's cinema, in Mumbai, India.^[1] Mehmood had an elder sister and six younger siblings. His sister, Minoo Mumtaz, was also a successful dancer and character actress in Bollywood movies. His youngest brother, Anwar Ali, is also an actor as well as a producer of such movies as Khud-daar and Kaash.

Career

Early career

As a child, he worked in Mumbai films like Kismet. He later had a number of odd jobs, working as a driver for director P. L. Santoshi. Santoshi's son, Rajkumar Santoshi, would later cast him in the film Andaz Apna Apna.

After getting married to legendary actress Meena Kumari's younger sister Madhu and becoming a father, he decided to act to earn a better living starting with a small break as a killer in the film CID. He started off by doing small, unnoticed roles in films like the peanut seller in Do Bigha Zameen and Pyaasa. He later went on to act in lead roles, but he was appreciated for his comedy, some of which was in the Hyderabad region's Urdu accent.

Later career

Towards the end of the 70s, Mehmood's popularity began to decline as other comedy actors like Jagdeep, Asrani, Paintal, Deven Verma and Kader Khan shot to prominence. Between 1989 and 1999, he made a handful of movies, but most of them were either shelved or made no impression. He acted as Johnny in Rajkumar Santoshi's Andaz Apna Apna – his last known film as an actor.

Death

On 23 July 2004, Mehmood died in his sleep in the American state of Pennsylvania, where he had travelled to for treatment of cardiovascular heart disease after suffering from poor health over several years.^[1] His fans were able to pay homage to him at Mehboob Studio in Bandra, Mumbai.^[2]

Legacy

One of his sons, Lucky Ali (Maqsood Ali), is a singer and composer who has also appeared on film.

He is one of the most respected and loved entertainers in the Indian film fraternity. A performer of such caliber that leading men back in the day used to reject films because their presence used to diminish in films if they starred with Mehmood.

He was the one who introduced Amitabh Bachchan into the commercial cinema space. He also gave a break to the music director R. D. Burman his first independent film as music director, Chhote Nawab and Rajesh Roshan with his own production Kunwara Baap (1974 film).

Filmography

Awards

See also

• Mehmood Ali Family
• List of Hindi film clans

References

External links

• "Legendary Comedian Mehmood Dead, Burial at Bangalore", INDOlink, 24 July 2004
• "Indian comedy actor Mehmood dies", BBC, 23 July 2004
• "Man who made nation laugh is no more", Indian Express, 24 July 2004
• "Comedian Mehmood is no more", The Times of India, 23 July 2004
• {{IMDb name|0576454}}

Further reading

• Zaveri, Hanif. Mehmood, a Man of Many Moods, Popular Prakashan, 2005. {{ISBN|81-7991-213-2}}

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