Dec 31: Veteran actor G. K. Pillai passed away on Friday morning, due to age-related ailments. He was 97.
Born in Varkala, Thiruvananthapuram, G. K. Pillai served in the Indian Army and Indian Navy, before venturing into movies.
He debuted in the Malayalam movie industry with the 1954 release ‘Snehaseema’. The film was directed by S. S. Rajan and written by Ponkunnam Varkey. G. K. Pillai grabbed the attention of the cinephiles, playing the villain characters mostly. He was also a popular face in historical movies like ‘Thacholi Aambu’, ‘Palattu Kunjikannan’ and even the iconic ‘Padayottam’, released in 1982, which also marks the first 70 mm film in South India.
He was very active in M-Town until the late 1980s and somehow disappeared from the spotlight during the 1990s, later made his second innings in the 2000s. He has acted in over 325 films in his entire career and some of his popular films include, ‘Ashwamedham’, ‘Aromalunni’, ‘Chola’, ‘Aanakkalari’ and ‘Karyasthan’.
G. K. Pillai later went on to become a household name for the television audience in Kerala. He debuted on tv with the 2004 horror soap ‘Kadamattathu Kathanar’ and shot to fame playing the Colonel Jagannatha Varma, Jayanthi’s dad in the 2011 soap ‘Kukumapoovu’.
G. K. Pillai’s wife passed away a few years ago. He is survived by his children – Prathapachandran, Chandramohan, Priyadarshan, Sreekala, Sreelekha, and Sreekumari. The film fraternity and his colleagues from the tv industry had paid tributes.
