Amrish Puri

Amrish Puri
Amrish Puri at the premiere of The Hero: Love Story of a Spy
Born	Amrish Lal Puri (1932-06-22)22 June 1932 Nawanshahr, Jalandhar, Punjab, British India
Died	12 January 2005(2005-01-12) (aged 72) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Cause of death	Cerebral Haemorrhage arising from Myelodysplastic syndrome
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1970–2005
Spouse(s)	Urmila Diveker (1957–2005) (his death)
Children	Rajiv (son) Namrata (daughter)
Relatives	Madan Puri (brother)
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Amrish lal Puri (22 June 1932 – 12 January 2005) was an Indian actor, who was an important figure in Indian theatre and cinema. He worked with notable playwrights of the time, such as Satyadev Dubey and Girish Karnad. He is remembered for playing iconic negative roles in Hindi cinema as well as other Indian and international film industries. To Indian audiences he is the most remembered for his role as Mogambo in Shekhar Kapur's Hindi film Mr. India (1987), and to Western audiences he is best known as Mola Ram in Steven Spielberg's Hollywood film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). Puri has won three Filmfare Awards for Best Supporting Actor.

Amrish Puri was born in Jalandhar Punjab to a Punjabi-speaking family of Lala Nihal Chand Puri and Ved Kaur. He had four siblings, elder brothers Chaman Puri and Madan Puri (both of whom are also actors), elder sister Chandrakanta, and a younger brother, Harish Puri. He was the first cousin of the actor and singer K. L. Saigal. He later moved to Shimla and graduated from B.M. College, Himachal Pradesh.

Amrish Puri acted in more than 400 films between 1967 and 2005, and was one of the most successful villains in Bollywood. Puri first came to Mumbai following the footsteps of his elder brothers- Madan Puri and Chaman Puri, who were already established actors known for playing villainous roles. He failed his first screen test, and instead found a job with the Employees' State Insurance Corporation Ministry of Labour and Employment(ESIC). At the same time, he started performing at the Prithvi Theatre in plays written by Satyadev Dubey. He eventually became well known as a stage actor and won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1979. This theatre recognition soon led to work in television ads and eventually to films at the relatively late age of 40.