- Born
- Died
- Birth nameVillupuram Chinnaiahpillai Ganesamurthy
- Nicknames
- The Marlon Brando of South Indian Cinema
- Nadigar Thilagam
- Height5′ 3¾″ (1.62 m)
- Tamil superstar from a poor family in Tamil Nadu, India. His father worked on the railways.
On the day of his birth his father, Chiniah Pillai, follower of Mahatma Gandhi, was jailed for participating in the Independence movement in Nellikuppam (Tamil Nadu, India). He was frequently in and out of jail, and was raised by his mother, Rajamani Ammal.
He joined theatre groups when he was young. He earned his screen name 'Sivaji' after acting in C.N. Annadurai's play 'Sivaji Kanda Indhu Rajyam', a historical play on the Maratha Emperor Shivaji.
He made his film debut in Parasakthi (1952) as Gunasekharan. He became an icon of the DMK party who made DMK films (founded by C.M. Annadurai).
He entered politics in the mid-50s where he joined the Congress party and then defected to support the opposition Janata Dal.
He is most well know for his mythological and patriotic portrayals, like in his most famous films like Karnan(mythological) and Veerapandiya Kattabomman (patriotic).
His main rival was MGR (M.G. Ramachandran) and together they dominated the Tamil film industry in the 1960s and 70s.
- IMDb mini biography by: Sujit R. Varma <sujit_varma@hotmail.com>
- SpouseKamala
- Children
- During a visit to the USA in 1962, he was named honorary mayor of Niagara City for a day and presented with a key to the city -- the only Indian besides Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to receive the honour.
- One of his many awards (many for humanitarian activites), he received the Chevalier, the Order of Arts and Literature ('Chevalier dans ordre des Arts et Letters') by the Ministry of Culture, Government of France (it's highest civilian award), in 1995 for his contributions in the field of Arts and Literature in France and all over the world.
- He could only estimate the number of films he appeared in - 170 to 300.
- In 1976, Sivaji Ganesan was honoured with the Padma Shri and in 1984, Sivaji Ganesan was conferred the Padma Bhushan in recognition of his many contributions to cinema and philanthropy.
- Upon his death, The Los Angeles Times described him as "the Marlon Brando of south India's film industry".
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