Gummadi Venkateswara Rao (9 July 1927 - 26 January 2010), known to the state of Andhra Pradesh as Gummadi, breathed his last at 11:30pm last night, at Care Hospital. He was already a patient of heart disease, diabetes and hypertension, and suffered multi-organ failure towards the end. Gummadi had convalesced from a bout of paralysis some years ago.
The entire Telugu movie industry was visibly shaken. Yesteryear stars and the current crop alike turned up to pay tearful last respects to the late actor - Satyanarayana and Jamuna broke down. Purandareswari, the CM Rosaiah, ANR, Ali, Chiranjeevi, and several others spoke about the influence the artiste had on cinema and on their lives.
Last rites will be held tomorrow.
The veteran actor, who epitomized the omnipresent "character actor" for Telugu audiences, spent almost 6 decades in the movie industry, with about 500 movies in his repertoire. His first movie was Adrushta Deepudu in 1950.
Having played roles of the elderly ever since he even set foot into the industry, he was credited with quite a few awards - including a Raghupathi Venkaiah Award by the government of AP (1998), and a National Award as well. In 1989, he was awarded a doctorate from the Telugu University.
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