Versatile Bollywood comedian. Mehmood with his unique brand of buffoonery, enacted with a perfect sense of timing, had generations of Indian cinema-goers guffawing uproariously in their seats with his outlandish antics for decades. His stardom stretched from late 1950s to early 1980s in many of box-office success out of his 300-odd films in which he featured. His feature in Pyasa (1957) went unnoticed but he gained prominence in Parvarish (1958) and finally Sasural (1961) established him as an accomplished comedian. Some of his other famous films include Padosan (1968), and Humjoli (1970) in which he played a triple role, Mehmood also helped several struggling actors and musicians, many of whom went on to become household names across India such as Amita Bachan. He was also an assiduous filmmaker and a dextrous technician who knew almost every aspect of his medium. Mehmood Ali was born in Bombay, the son of a small-time actor-dancer. He retired to Bangalore to breed horses.