Veteran film actor Jose Prakash passes away

Saturday, March 24, 2012: Veteran Malayalam film actor Jose Prakash (87) has passed away at a private hospital here on Saturday. He was a singer turned actor who had appeared around 300 films mostly in Antagonist role. He was conferred with JC Daniel Award for 2012 on Friday.
He dominated the Malayalam film industry in the role of villain for around 40 years. He was born as the eldest of 8 children of K.J.Joseph & Eliyamma Joseph. He has a younger brother Prem Prakash who is also an actor. He was settled around 30 years in Madras and later moved to Cochin. In 2003 his right leg had to be amputated due to Diabetics, After 2003 he retired from film industry due to this reason. He has 6 children, 4 sons and 2 daughters.
Later, he switched to character roles in mid 90s. Jose Prakash was working in army before entering film industry. Like other actors of that age he was not a theatre or stage artist. He had served for British Indian army for 8 years.
He later left army and return to his homeland and start small business. Having interest in cinema and music from childhood he started a small club with his friends called Kottayam Arts Club in which he was the lead singer. Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair once saw his performance and called him as a singer for his debut directorial film Shariyo Thetto. It was Thikkurissy who gave him the name Jose Prakash.
During his singing career he had done small roles and cameos for films. His first break as an actor was Bhakta Kuchela in 1961. But his major break as a villain was Olavum Theravum in 1969 and he later went on to do many films mostly in villain roles. He and KP Ummer dominated Malayalam film industry in the role of Antagonist and was a hard target for Heroes.
Up to date he had acted for more than 350 films in Malayalam language. He retired from film industry in 2003 due to health reasons. His last film was Ente Veedu Appuvinteyum directed by Sibi Malayil. After a long gap of 8 years he did a small cameo role in Traffic.