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Saeed Jaffrey
OBE
Born(1929-01-08)8 January 1929
Malerkotla, Punjab, British India
Died15 November 2015(2015-11-15) (aged 86)
London, England
Resting placeGunnersbury Cemetery
CitizenshipBritish
Indian (formerly)
EducationUniversity of Allahabad (BA, MA)
Catholic University of America (MFA)
OccupationActor
Years active1961–2011
WorksFull list
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1958; div. 1966)​
Jennifer Sorrell
​
(m. 1980)​
Children3, including Sakina Jaffrey
RelativesKiara Advani (grandniece)
HonorsOrder of the British Empire (1995)
Padma Shri (2016; posthumously)

Saeed Jaffrey OBE (8 January 1929 – 15 November 2015) was a British-Indian actor.[1] His career covered film, radio, stage and television roles over six decades and more than 150 British, American, and Indian movies.[2] During the 1980s and '90s, 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 The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Tandoori Nights (1985–1987) and Little Napoleons (1994).[3] He played an instrumental part in bringing together film makers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant[4][5][6] 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 Indian films 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.[7] 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.[8][9]

He was the first Asian to receive British and Canadian film award nominations. In 1995 he was appointed an OBE in recognition of his services to drama, the first Asian to receive this honour.[10] His memoirs, Saeed: An Actor's Journey, were published in 1998.[11] He died at a hospital in London on 15 November 2015, after collapsing from a brain haemorrhage at his home.[12][13][14] He was posthumously given the Padma Shri award in January 2016.[15]

Early life and education

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Saeed Jaffrey was born on 8 January 1929 to a Punjabi Muslim family in Malerkotla, Punjab region. At that time, his maternal grandfather, Khan Bahadur Fazle Imam of Banur, was the Dewan or Prime Minister of the princely state of Malerkotla.[16]: 1  His father, Dr Hamid Hussain Jaffrey, was a physician and a civil servant with the Health Services department of the United Provinces of British India.[17] Hamid's wife and the mother of Saeed Jeffrey was Hamida Begum. Jeffrey had two brothers, Waheed and Hameed, and a sister, Shagufta.[18]

Jaffrey and his family moved from one medical posting to another within the United Provinces, living in cities like Muzaffarnagar, Lucknow, Mirzapur, Kanpur, Aligarh, Mussoorie, Gorakhpur and Jhansi. His father was a doctor in government service who was posted in many rural areas across the United Provinces and the family invariably moved with him. At the time of his birth, Jaffrey's maternal grandfather was the diwan (first minister) of Malerkotla State.

In 1938, Jaffrey joined Minto Circle School at Aligarh Muslim University where he developed his talent for mimicry. In 1939 he played the role of Dara Shikoh in a school play about Aurangzeb. At Aligarh, Jaffrey also mastered the Urdu language and attended riding school.[19] At the local cinemas in Aligarh, he saw many Bollywood movies and became a fan of Motilal, Prithviraj Kapoor, Noor Mohammed Charlie, Fearless Nadia, Kanan Bala and Durga Khote.[16]: 31 

In 1941 at Mussoorie, Jaffrey attended Wynberg Allen School, a Church of England public school, where he picked up British-accented English. He played the role of the Cockney cook, Mason, in the annual school play, R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End. After completing his Senior Cambridge there, Jaffrey attended St. George's College, Mussoorie, an all-boys' Roman Catholic school run by Brothers of Saint Patrick. He played the role of Kate Hardcastle in the annual school play, Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops To Conquer. At Mussoorie, Jaffrey and his brother Waheed would often sneak out at night to watch British and American films at the local theatres.[16]: 31 

In 1945, Jaffrey gained admission to Allahabad University where he completed his BA in English literature in 1948 and MA in medieval Indian literature in 1950. At Allahabad, Jaffrey learned about Hindu religion and mythology for the first time. While visiting his father in Gorakhpur in the winter of 1945, Jaffrey discovered the BBC World Service on the shortwave radio.[16]: 42  When India gained independence from Britain on 15 August 1947 Jaffrey heard Jawaharlal Nehru's inaugural speech on All India Radio as the Prime Minister of India, titled "Tryst with Destiny".[16]: 43  The partition of India caused all of Jaffrey's relatives in New Delhi and Bannoor, Punjab, to migrate to Pakistan.[16]: 48 

Jaffrey was awarded his MFA in drama from the Catholic University of America in 1957.[2]

Career

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New Delhi (1951–1956)

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In February 1951, Jaffrey travelled to New Delhi to try his luck as a cartoonist, writer or broadcaster. He successfully auditioned as an announcer at All India Radio. He started his radio career as an English Announcer with the External Services of All India Radio on 2 April 1951 for a salary of ₹250 / month.[16]: 54–59 [20] Unable to afford a place to stay and having no relatives in the city, Jaffrey spent his nights on the bench behind the office building. Mehra Masani, the station director, eventually arranged for him to share a room at the YMCA for ₹30 / month. Jaffrey bought a Raleigh bicycle for the commute.[16]: 59 

Along with Frank Thakurdas and "Benji" Benegal, Jaffrey set up the Unity Theatre, an English-language repertory company at New Delhi in 1951.[21] The first production was of Jean Cocteau's play The Eagle Has Two Heads, with Madhur Bahadur playing the role of the Queen's Reader opposite Saeed as Azrael.[16]: 62  Unity Theatre subsequently staged J. B. Priestley's Dangerous Corner, Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, Molière's The Bourgeois Gentleman, Christopher Fry's The Firstborn and T. S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party .[22]

After graduation from Miranda House in 1953, Bahadur joined All India Radio. She worked as a disc jockey at night.[23] Jaffrey and Bahadur, having fallen "madly in love", dated at Gaylord, a restaurant in Connaught Place.[16]: 62–63  At Unity Theatre, Bahadur and Jaffrey acted together in Christopher Fry's A Phoenix Too 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 drama formally at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), a drama school in the UK.[24] In late 1955, Jaffrey won a Fulbright scholarship to study drama in America the following year.[13] In spring 1956, he approached Bahadur's parents in Delhi for her hand in marriage but they refused because they felt that his financial prospects as an actor did not appear sound.[16]: 76  In summer 1956, Jaffrey resigned from his position as Radio Director at All India Radio. He flew to London on his way to America and proposed to Bahadur. She refused but gave him a tour of RADA where she pointed out a young Peter O'Toole and other English stage actors who would later achieve prominence. A few days later, Jaffrey boarded the RMS Queen Elizabeth to sail across the Atlantic Ocean from Southampton to New York City.[16]: 77–78 

New York (1958–1965)

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In 1957, Jaffrey graduated from the Catholic University of America's Department of Speech and Drama and was selected to act in summer stock plays at St. Michael’s Playhouse in Winooski, Vermont.[22] Jaffrey arranged for Bahadur to join him there after she graduated from RADA.[16]: 83–84  He played the lead in three of the plays put on by St. Michael’s Playhouse: Sakini, the Okinawan interpreter in The Teahouse of the August Moon; barrister Sir Wilfred Robarts in Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution; and Voice of God, with Gino, in The Little World of Don Camillo.

In September 1957, Bahadur and Jaffrey returned to Washington, D.C. where Jaffrey rehearsed for the 1957 – 58 season with the National Players, a professional touring company that performed classical plays all over America.[16]: 83–92  He was the first Indian to take Shakespearean plays on a tour of the United States. He was cast in the role of Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet. He played Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew.[25] Midway through the tour, Jaffrey returned to Washington DC from Miami to marry Bahadur in a modest civil ceremony.[26][16]: 93  The next day, they travelled to New York City where Bahadur was taken on as a tour guide at the United Nations while Jaffrey undertook public relations work for the Government of India Tourist Office. They lived on West 27th Street, between Sixth and Broadway. Between 1959 and 1962 Bahadur and Jaffrey had three daughters, Meera, Zia and Sakina.[9]

In 1958, Jaffrey joined Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and played the lead in an Off-Broadway production of Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding. At this time, he met Ismail Merchant who had recently arrived from Bombay to attend the New York University Stern School of Business.[27] Merchant approached Jaffrey with a proposal to put on a Broadway production of The Little Clay Cart starring the Jaffreys. Jaffrey took him home for dinner, where he met Madhur for the first time.[5] In 1959, James Ivory, then a budding filmmaker from California, approached Jaffrey to provide the narration for his short film about Indian miniature painting, The Sword and the Flute (1959).[28] Jaffrey provided the narration for Ismail Merchant's Oscar-nominated short film, The Creation of Woman (1960). The same year, he appeared in a limited run off-Broadway production of Twelfth Night at the Equity Library Theatre in the role of sea captain Antonio.[29]

In 1961, when The Sword and the Flute was shown in New York City, the Jaffreys encouraged Ismail Merchant to attend the screening, where he met Ivory for the first time.[30][31] They subsequently met regularly at the Jaffreys' dinners and cemented their relationship into a lifetime partnership, both personal and professional.[3] The Jaffreys planned to go back to India, start a travelling company and tour with it.[23] They would often discuss this idea with James Ivory and started writing a script in his brownstone on East 64th Street.[16]: 147 

In 1961, Jaffrey was forced to give up his job as Publicity Officer with the Government of India Tourist Office. He went back to radio and joined The New York Times Company's radio station WQXR-FM, where his first broadcast programme was Reflections of India with Saeed Jaffrey.[16]: 115–117  Jaffrey also took up acting on stage. The pay for such roles was generally $10/hour.[28]

Within a year of Jaffrey's joining the Actors Studio in 1958, he was able to get Madhur admitted there too. However, they left by 1962 because they felt the criticism offered by Lee Strasberg was too much for their sensitivity.[16]: 106–108  He played the role of the Wigmaker in a three-week run of a theatre version of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon at Fort Lee Playhouse in New Jersey. He appeared briefly in Rabindranath Tagore's The King of the Dark Chamber along with Madhur. From January to May 1962, Jaffrey appeared at Broadway's Ambassador Theatre in a stage adaption of E. M. Forster's novel A Passage to India in the role of Professor Godbole.[16]: 126–130  In November 1962 Madhur and Saeed appeared in Rolf Forsberg's Off-Broadway production of A Tenth of an Inch Makes The Difference. Their performance was described by The New York Times drama critic, Milton Esterow, as "sensitive acting" that made up "the brightest part of the evening".[32]

In 1963, Jaffrey toured with Lotte Lenya and the American National Theater and Academy to perform Brecht on Brecht, a revue which was seen in Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit. In summer 1964, Jaffrey along with some actor friends, created a multi-racial touring company called Theater In The Street, giving free performances of Molière's The Doctor Despite Himself in Harlem, Brooklyn and Bedford–Stuyvesant.

By 1964, the Jaffreys' marriage had collapsed.[16]: 133  Madhur arranged for their children to live with her parents and sister in Delhi while she went to Mexico for the formal divorce proceedings.[11] The divorce was finalized in 1966.

London (1965–2000)

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In 1965, Jaffrey was offered the role of Brahma in Kindly Monkeys at the Arts Theatre, London. Favourable reviews of the play brought an offer from the BBC World Service to write, act and narrate scripts in Urdu and Hindi.[16]: 145  Jaffrey played the small part of barrister Hamidullah in the BBC Television adaptation of A Passage to India.[16]: 150  In order to pay the rent on his one-bedroom flat in Chelsea, Jaffrey took a job as an assistant cashier at Liberty's, a department store selling luxury goods.[16]: 147 

In early 1966, Jaffrey returned to New York City to play the haiku-karate expert Korean police chief Kim Bong Choy in Nathan Weinstein, Mystic, Connecticut that opened on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.[33] In summer that year he played a role in The Coffee Lover, a comedy starring Alexis Smith that toured Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine.[34] Later that year, he recorded a narration of the Kama Sutra titled The Art of Love for Vanguard Records. It was listed by Time magazine in February 1967 as "one of the five best spoken word records ever made".[26]

Back in London, Jaffrey was given the opportunity to shoot in India for the next Merchant Ivory film, The Guru (1969). He flew to Bombay in December 1967 and met his daughters after a gap of three years. He returned to London in the summer of 1968. He became the first Indian in a starring role in London's West End theatre when he played a Pakistani photographer in On A Foggy Day. In 1975 he appeared as Billy Fish in John Huston's classic film The Man Who Would Be King.

In the 1980s, Jaffrey won substantial roles on British television in colonial dramas The Jewel in the Crown and The Far Pavilions plus the British Indian sitcom Tandoori Nights, Little Napoleons (1994) and the ITV soap Coronation Street.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life[35] in 2001 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel during the curtain call of the musical The King and I at the London Palladium.

Personal life

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His first wife, Madhur Bahadur, who took his name, came from an old and affluent Hindu Kayastha family of Old Delhi. She is a well-known character actress who appeared in a number of Indian and British films, and had a successful career as a food and travel 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 latter made her acting debut alongside her mother in Merchant-Ivory's film The Perfect Murder.[13] After the divorce, the children were sent to India, to be cared for by Bahadur's parents and sister in Delhi. Bahadur married Sanford Allen in 1969, an American classical violinist, but she remained professionally known by her first husband's name.

In 1980, Jaffrey married Jennifer Sorrell, an agent and freelance casting director. Jaffrey converted to Christianity and attended Sunday service with his wife at St Mary’s Church in South Ealing, where his funeral took place.[21][36]

In 1998, Jaffrey published his autobiography, Saeed: An Actor's Journey.[37]

Death

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Jaffrey died in the early hours of 14 November 2015 at a London hospital. He was 86 years old. He had collapsed at his London residence from a brain haemorrhage, and never regained consciousness.[12][14] His funeral was held in London on 7 December.[38][39]

Filmography

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Main article: Saeed Jaffrey filmography

Jaffrey appeared in many Bollywood and Hollywood movies, and appeared with actors including Sean Connery, Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan. He starred in films directed by Satyajit Ray, James Ivory, Richard Attenborough, and John Huston.[22]

His film credits include 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), and My Beautiful Laundrette (1985).

He also appeared in many Bollywood films in the 1980s and 1990s. For television he starred in The Protectors (1973), The Persuaders! Gangsters (1975–1978), The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Tandoori Nights (1985–1987) and Little Napoleons (1994). He also appeared as Ravi Desai on Coronation Street and in Minder as Mr Mukerjee in Series 1 episode The Bengal Tiger.[40]

Awards and nominations

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Civilian Award
Film Awards
Year Award Film Category Result
1986 BAFTA Awards My Beautiful Laundrette Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated
1979 Filmfare Awards Shatranj Ke Khilari Best Supporting Actor Won
1982 Chashme Buddoor Nominated
1986 Ram Teri Ganga Maili Nominated
1992 Henna Nominated
1991 Genie Awards Masala Best Actor Nominated

References

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  1. ^ Nyay Bhushan (16 November 2015). "Veteran Bollywood Actor Saeed Jaffrey Dies at 86". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Saeed Jaffrey, actor – obituary". The Telegraph. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  3. ^ a b Robert Butler (6 June 1994). "Saeed Jaffrey's passage from India". The Independent. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  4. ^ John Leman Riley (16 November 2015). "Saeed Jaffrey: Actor whose career took in India, Hollywood and the UK and who worked with Lean and Attenborough". The Independent. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  5. ^ a b Laurence Phelan (16 December 1999). "How We Met: Ismail Merchant & Madhur Jaffrey". The Independent. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  6. ^ Mel Gussow (2 January 2003). "Telling Secrets That Worked For a Gambling Life in Films". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  7. ^ Shubhra Gupta (17 November 2015). "From playing Nawab to a paanwala: Saeed Jaffrey straddled roles onscreen with ease". Indian Express. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  8. ^ Avijit Ghosh (17 November 2015). "Saeed Jaffrey one of the best known faces of Hindi cinema in Hollywood passes away". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  9. ^ a b "The Best Films of Saeed Jaffrey". Rediff.com. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  10. ^ Michael Roddy (16 November 2015). "Actor Saeed Jaffrey was first Indian named to Order of British Empire". The Globe and Mail. Reuters Canada. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  11. ^ a b Deborah Ross (25 January 1999). "Saeed Jaffrey interview: New kid on the Street". The Independent. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Saeed Jaffrey, Indian actor and Bollywood veteran, dies". BBC News. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  13. ^ a b c Elaine Woo (16 November 2015). "Saeed Jaffrey dies at 86; Actor exuded flair and versatility from Bollywood to Britain". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  14. ^ a b Jaffrey Associates (16 November 2015). "Announcement of Death: Veteran Indian-born actor Saeed Jaffrey has died". ResponseSource Press Release Wire (Press release). SourceWire News Distribution. Press Release Wire on behalf of Jaffrey Associates. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  15. ^ a b "Saeed Jaffrey to get posthumous Padma Shri honour". Business Standard. 25 January 2016.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Jaffrey, Saeed (1998). Saeed: An Actor's Journey. Constable. ISBN 009476770X.
  17. ^ Yusra Husain (17 November 2015). "Many scenes of Saeed Jaffrey's life were played in city". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  18. ^ "Jennifer Jaffrey". The ASHA Centre. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  19. ^ Eram Agha (16 November 2015). "Saeed Jaffrey never got over his Aligarh days". The Times of India. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  20. ^ Screen Online credits
  21. ^ a b Naseem Khan (16 November 2015). "Saeed Jaffrey obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  22. ^ a b c Prasun Sonwalkar (16 November 2015). "Saeed 'versatile' Jaffrey passes away at 86". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  23. ^ a b Judith Weinraub (2 December 2010). "Madhur Jaffrey Interview – Part 1: An oral history project conducted by Judith Weinraub". Fales Library, NYU. Archived from the original on 8 March 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  24. ^ "Moving stories: Madhur Jaffrey". BBC News. 22 December 2003. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  25. ^ BBC UK Desert Island Discs review of Saeed Jaffrey
  26. ^ a b "Saeed Jaffrey obituary: Indian star who enjoyed global fame". BBC News. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  27. ^ Roger Ebert (26 May 2005). "Ismail Merchant: In Memory". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  28. ^ a b Michele Kayal (20 October 2015). "From actress to cookbook author: The lives of Madhur Jaffrey". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  29. ^ "Saeed Jaffrey Biography (1929–2015)". Film Reference. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  30. ^ Tommy Nguyen (15 January 2006). "'White' Ivory's Last Film With Merchant". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  31. ^ Ismail Merchant, Laurence Raw (9 April 2012). "James Ivory and Ismail Merchant: An Interview by Jag Mohan, Basu Chatterji and Arun Kaul, 1968". Merchant-Ivory: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi. p. 3. ISBN 9781617032370.
  32. ^ Milton Esterow (13 November 1962). "Theater: Zen Buddhism; Plays by Rolf Forsberg Open at the East End". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2015. The brightest part of the evening is the sensitive acting of Saeed Jaffrey and Madhur Jaffrey. Some of their colleagues, however, are not so skillful.
  33. ^ "Nathan Weinstein, Mystic, Connecticut". Playbill Vault. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  34. ^ "Comedy Opens Monday At Westport Playhouse". The Bridgeport Post. 7 August 1966. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  35. ^ Kaye-Smith, Sean (November 2007). "Partition". Vertigo Magazine. No. 13 – via www.closeupfilmcentre.com. ...he [Jaffrey] was the subject of the popular television programme This Is Your Life...
  36. ^ "Church farewell for Saeed Jaffrey".
  37. ^ Sanjay Suri (16 November 1998). "The Seduction Of Saeed". Outlook India. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  38. ^ Roy, Amit (9 December 2015). "Church farewell for Saeed Jaffrey". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  39. ^ Bhuchar, Suman (12 December 2015). "Saeed Jaffrey: Friendship, love and warmth remembered at funeral". Asian Culture Vulture. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  40. ^ "Entertainment | Saeed Jaffrey's journey", HARDTalk interview of Saeed Jaffrey, BBC News, Thursday, 6 May 1999.
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