Irrfan Khan



Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan, professionally known as Irrfan Khan (7 January 1967 – 29 April 2020) was an Indian actor, known predominantly for his work in Hindi cinema, in addition to British and American films. Cited in the media as one of the finest actors in Indian cinema, Khan's career spanned over 30 years and earned him numerous accolades, including a National Film Award, an Asian Film Award, and four Filmfare Awards. In 2011, he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honor.

Beginning his career in Indian television, Khan made his film debut in 1988 with a small role in Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay!, although most of his role didn't end in the final cut. He struggled to get a career in Bollywood without actual success, all changed in 2001 when he accepted the main role in the British-produced film The Warrior. The film got him recognition in the international festival circuit, opening him to more acting opportunities. He began to get more recognition with the titular role in 2004's Maqbool, an adaptation of Macbeth and earned a Filmfare Best Villain Award for his role in Haasil in 2003. He got his first actual lead role in 2005 with film Rog, which was unanimously praised and led him to a long career in both lead and villain roles. He got a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his role in 2007's Life in a... Metro, and the National Film Award for Best Actor and the Filmfare Citics Award for Best Actor for his role  as the titular athlete-turned-bandit Paan Singh Tomar in 2013. He was also nominated to the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for that role, but did not win it, although he'd eventually earn that award for his role as the in 2017's Hindi Medium, his biggest grossing film. Khan also had the protagonist role on 2013's The Lunchbox, who won the Grand Rail d'Or at Cannes Film Festival and received a BAFTA nomination, and that became his highest-grossing Hindi film up until Hindi Medium.

Along his prolific Indian career, he also had a parallel career in British cinema and Hollywood films. He is better known by western audience as the policeman interrogating the protagonist in Slumdog Millionaire (a role who contributed heavily to the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast that the film earned), the adult Pi in Life of Pi, and the Playful Millionare Simon Masani in Jurassic World.

Khan died in 2020 due to an intestinal infection. He had taken a short retirement in 2018 due to a neuroendocrine tumor, and had just recovered enough to film and promote what turned to be his last movie, Angrezi Medium.


 * My Nayme Is: Khan decided to add an extra "R" to his given name going from "Irfan" to "Irrfan", a change that was taken legally in 2012, as he liked the sound of the extra letter. He also tried to be known mononymously as just "Irrfan", probably to not be linked with the other famous Khans in the business


 * The Warrior (2001) - Lafcadia
 * Haasil (2003) - Ranvijay Singh
 * Maqbool (2004) - Maqbool
 * The Namesake (2006) - Ashoke Ganguli
 * Life in a... Metro (2007) - Monty
 * The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - The Father
 * Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - Police Inspector
 * Billu (2009) - Bilas Rao Pardesi aka 'Billu'
 * In Treatment (2010, TV Series) - Sunil Sanyal
 * Paan Singh Tomar (2011) - Paan Singh Tomar
 * The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) - 	Dr. Rajit Ratha
 * Life of Pi (2012) - Adult Piscine Molitor Patel ("Pi")
 * The Lunchbox (2013) - Saajan Fernandes
 * Piku (2015) - Rana Chaudhary
 * Talvar (2015) - Ashwin Kumar
 * Jurassic World (2015) - Simon Masrani (a role he repeated in the Lego videogame adaptations)
 * The Jungle Book - Baloo in the Hindi dub
 * Inferno (2016) - Harry "The Provost" Sims
 * Hindi Medium (2017) - Raj Batra
 * Blackmail (2018) - Dev Kaushal
 * Puzzle (2018) - Robert
 * Angrezi Medium (2020) - Champak Bansal, his last role