Saeed Jaffrey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1929-01-08)8 January 1929 |
| Died | 15 November 2015(2015-11-15) (aged 86) London, England |
| Resting place | Gunnersbury Cemetery |
| Citizenship | British Indian (formerly) |
| Education | University of Allahabad (BA,MA) Catholic University of America (MFA) |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1961–2011 |
| Works | Full list |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3, includingSakina Jaffrey |
| Relatives | Kiara Advani (grandniece) |
| Honors | Order of the British Empire (1995) Padma Shri (2016; posthumously) |
Saeed Jaffrey (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 filmMy Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and television seriesThe Jewel in the Crown (1984),Tandoori Nights (1985–1987) andLittle Napoleons (1994).[3] He played an instrumental part in bringing together filmmakersJames Ivory andIsmail Merchant,[4][5][6] and acted in several of theirMerchant Ivory Productions films such asThe Guru (1969),Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978),The Courtesans of Bombay (1983) andThe Deceivers (1988).
Jaffrey broke intoIndian films withSatyajit Ray'sShatranj Ke Khilari (1977) for which he won theFilmfare Best Supporting Actor Award in 1978. His cameo role as thepaanwala Lallan Miyan inChashme Buddoor (1981) won him popularity with Indian audiences.[7] He became a household name in India with his roles inRaj Kapoor'sRam Teri Ganga Maili (1985) andHenna (1991), both of which won him nominations for the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award.[8][9]
Jaffrey was the first Asian to receive British and Canadian film award nominations. In 1995 he was appointed anOBE 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 inLondon on 15 November 2015, after collapsing from abrain haemorrhage at his home.[12][13][14] He was posthumously given thePadma Shri award in January 2016.[15]
Saeed Jaffrey was born on 8 January, 1929 to aPunjabi Muslim family inMalerkotla in thePunjab Province ofBritish India (now inPunjab, India). At that time, his maternal grandfather, Khan Bahadur Fazle Imam of Banur, was theDewan orPrime Minister of theprincely state ofMalerkotla.[16]: 1 His father, Dr Hamid Hussain Jaffrey, was a physician and a civil servant with the Health Services department of theUnited Provinces of Agra and Oudh in colonial India.[17] Hamid's wife and the mother of Saeed Jaffrey was Hamida Begum. Jaffrey 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 likeMuzaffarnagar,Lucknow,Mirzapur,Kanpur,Aligarh,Mussoorie,Gorakhpur andJhansi. His father was a doctor in government service who was posted in many rural areas across theUnited Provinces and the family invariably moved with him. At the time of his birth, Jaffrey's maternal grandfather was thediwan (first minister) ofMalerkotla State.
In 1938, Jaffrey joinedMinto Circle School atAligarh Muslim University where he developed his talent for mimicry. In 1939 he played the role ofDara Shikoh in a school play aboutAurangzeb. At Aligarh, Jaffrey also mastered theUrdu language and attendedriding school.[19] At the local cinemas in Aligarh, he saw manyBollywood movies and became a fan ofMotilal,Prithviraj Kapoor,Noor Mohammed Charlie,Fearless Nadia,Kanan Bala andDurga Khote.[16]: 31
In 1941 at Mussoorie, Jaffrey attendedWynberg Allen School, a Church of England public school, where he picked up British-accented English. He played the role of theCockney cook, Mason, in the annual school play,R. C. Sherriff'sJourney's End. After completing his Senior Cambridge there, Jaffrey attendedSt. George's College, Mussoorie, an all-boys' Roman Catholic school run byBrothers of Saint Patrick. He played the role of Kate Hardcastle in the annual school play,Oliver Goldsmith'sShe 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 toAllahabad University where he completed his BA in English literature in 1948 and MA in medieval Indian literature in 1950. At Allahabad, Jaffrey learned aboutHindu religion and mythology for the first time. While visiting his father in Gorakhpur in the winter of 1945, Jaffrey discovered theBBC World Service on theshortwave radio.[16]: 42 When India gained independence from Britain on 15 August 1947 Jaffrey heardJawaharlal Nehru's inaugural speech onAll India Radio as thePrime Minister of India, titled "Tryst with Destiny".[16]: 43 Thepartition of India caused all of Jaffrey's relatives inNew Delhi and Bannoor, Punjab, to migrate toPakistan.[16]: 48
Jaffrey was awarded his MFA in drama from theCatholic University of America in 1957.[2]
In February 1951, Jaffrey travelled toNew 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 theYMCA for ₹30 / month. Jaffrey bought aRaleigh bicycle for the commute.[16]: 59
Along with Frank Thakurdas and "Benji" Benegal, Jaffrey set up the Unity Theatre, an English-languagerepertory company at New Delhi in 1951.[21] The first production was ofJean Cocteau's playThe Eagle Has Two Heads, withMadhur Bahadur playing the role of theQueen's Reader opposite Saeed as Azrael.[16]: 62 Unity Theatre subsequently stagedJ. B. Priestley'sDangerous Corner,Dylan Thomas'Under Milk Wood,Molière'sThe Bourgeois Gentleman,Christopher Fry'sThe Firstborn andT. S. Eliot'sThe 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 inConnaught Place.[16]: 62–63 At Unity Theatre, Bahadur and Jaffrey acted together inChristopher Fry'sA Phoenix Too Frequent, followed byOscar Wilde'sThe Importance of Being Earnest,Tennessee Williams'Auto-da-Fé, andWilliam Shakespeare'sOthello.
In early 1955, Bahadur left to study drama formally at theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), a drama school in the UK.[24] In late 1955, Jaffrey won aFulbright scholarship to studydrama 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 youngPeter O'Toole and other English stage actors who would later achieve prominence. A few days later, Jaffrey boarded theRMS Queen Elizabeth to sail across theAtlantic Ocean fromSouthampton toNew York City.[16]: 77–78
In 1957, Jaffrey graduated from theCatholic University of America's Department of Speech and Drama and was selected to act insummer stock plays atSt. Michael's Playhouse inWinooski, 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 inThe Teahouse of the August Moon; barrister Sir Wilfred Robarts inAgatha Christie'sWitness for the Prosecution; and Voice of God, with Gino, inThe Little World of Don Camillo.
In September 1957, Bahadur and Jaffrey returned toWashington, D.C. where Jaffrey rehearsed for the 1957 – 58 season with theNational 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 theUnited States. He was cast in the role ofFriar Laurence inRomeo and Juliet. He played Gremio inThe 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 toNew York City where Bahadur was taken on as a tour guide at theUnited Nations while Jaffrey undertook public relations work for the Government of India Tourist Office. They lived on West 27th Street, betweenSixth andBroadway. Between 1959 and 1962 Bahadur and Jaffrey had three daughters, Meera, Zia andSakina.[9]
In 1958, Jaffrey joinedLee Strasberg'sActors Studio and played the lead in an Off-Broadway production ofFederico García Lorca'sBlood Wedding. At this time, he metIsmail Merchant who had recently arrived fromBombay to attend theNew York University Stern School of Business.[27] Merchant approached Jaffrey with a proposal to put on a Broadway production ofThe 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 aboutIndian 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 ofTwelfth Night at theEquity Library Theatre in the role of sea captain Antonio.[29]
In 1961, whenThe 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 hisbrownstone 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 joinedThe New York Times Company's radio stationWQXR-FM, where his first broadcast programme wasReflections 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 byLee 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 ofAkira Kurosawa'sRashomon at Fort Lee Playhouse inNew Jersey. He appeared briefly inRabindranath Tagore'sThe King of the Dark Chamber along with Madhur. From January to May 1962, Jaffrey appeared atBroadway'sAmbassador Theatre in a stage adaption ofE. M. Forster's novelA Passage to India in the role of Professor Godbole.[16]: 126–130 In November 1962 Madhur and Saeed appeared inRolf Forsberg'sOff-Broadway production ofA Tenth of an Inch Makes The Difference. Their performance was described byThe New York Times drama critic,Milton Esterow, as "sensitive acting" that made up "the brightest part of the evening".[32]
In 1963, Jaffrey toured withLotte Lenya and theAmerican National Theater and Academy to performBrecht on Brecht, arevue 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'sThe Doctor Despite Himself inHarlem,Brooklyn andBedford–Stuyvesant.
By 1964, the Jaffreys' marriage had collapsed.[16]: 133 Madhur arranged for their children to live with her parents and sister inDelhi while she went toMexico for the formal divorce proceedings.[11] The divorce was finalized in 1966.
In 1965, Jaffrey was offered the role ofBrahma inKindly Monkeys at theArts 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 ofA Passage to India.[16]: 150 In order to pay the rent on his one-bedroom flat inChelsea, Jaffrey took a job as an assistant cashier atLiberty'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 inNathan Weinstein, Mystic, Connecticut that opened on Broadway at theBrooks Atkinson Theatre.[33] In summer that year he played a role inThe Coffee Lover, a comedy starringAlexis Smith that toured Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine.[34] Later that year, he recorded a narration of theKama Sutra titledThe Art of Love forVanguard Records. It was listed byTime 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'sWest End theatre when he played a Pakistani photographer inOn A Foggy Day. In 1975 he appeared as Billy Fish in John Huston's classic filmThe Man Who Would Be King.
In the 1980s, Jaffrey won substantial roles on British television in colonial dramasThe Jewel in the Crown andThe Far Pavilions plus the British Indian sitcomTandoori Nights,Little Napoleons (1994) and the ITV soapCoronation Street.
He was the subject ofThis Is Your Life[35] in 2001 when he was surprised byMichael Aspel during the curtain call of the musicalThe King and I at theLondon Palladium.
Jaffrey's first wife,Madhur Bahadur, who took his name, came from an old and affluentHinduKayastha family ofOld 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 inWashington DC in September 1958 and divorced inMexico in 1966. They had three daughters: Zia, Meera andSakina Jaffrey. The latter made her acting debut alongside her mother in Merchant-Ivory's filmThe 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 marriedSanford 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]
Jaffrey died in the early hours of 14 November 2015 at aLondon hospital. He was 86 years old. He had collapsed at his London residence from a brainhaemorrhage, and never regained consciousness.[12][14] His funeral was held in London on 7 December.[38][39]
Jaffrey appeared in manyBollywood and Hollywood movies, and appeared with actors includingSean Connery,Michael Caine andPierce Brosnan. He starred in films directed bySatyajit Ray,James Ivory,Richard Attenborough, andJohn Huston.[22]
His film credits includeThe Wilby Conspiracy (1975),The Man Who Would Be King (1975),Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) (1977),Sphinx (1981), asSardar Patel inGandhi (1982),A Passage to India (1965 BBC version and 1984 film),The Far Pavilions (1984),The Razor's Edge (1984), andMy Beautiful Laundrette (1985).
He also appeared in many Bollywood films in the 1980s and 1990s. For television he starred inThe Protectors (1973),The Persuaders!Gangsters (1975–1978),The Jewel in the Crown (1984),Tandoori Nights (1985–1987) andLittle Napoleons (1994). He also appeared asRavi Desai onCoronation Street and inMinder as Mr Mukerjee in Series 1 episodeThe Bengal Tiger.[40]
| 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 |
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.
...he [Jaffrey] was the subject of the popular television programmeThis Is Your Life...
