Manjeri Narayana Nambiar, alias MN Nambiar, the 88-year-old veteran theatre artist and a legend in Indian cinema, passed away today in a private hospital in Chennai. The villain-cum-character actor had been in the film industry for more than 60 years.

Born on March 17, 1919 in Kannur, Kerala, he entered the stage at the age of 13. His first film, 'Bhakta Ramadoss', where he played a villain was shot in 1935 in Hindi and Tamil. Until his last film 'Sudeshi' in 2006, Nambiar was an actor you could never miss!

Nambiar acted in more than 330 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Sinhalese and English. Even when the rivalry between MGR and Sivaji was at its height, Nambiar was the only actor who could be cast as villain in both their films - as director P Vasu put it: "He is irreplaceable."

Nambiar's high strung acting, which was at its best when he was cast opposite MGR, and his part-smooth and part rough dialogue delivery, peppered with a Malayalam flavour, held an inexplicable fascination for the youth.

The veteran actor also spearheaded a huge following for Lord Ayyappa. He organized 63 trips to Sabarimala; with Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikanth accompanying him during three pilgrimages.

Like the man himself, a professional to the core and devoted to his wife and children, his Gopalapuram house exuded an air of peaceful comfort. Its garden absorbed the unending footfalls of the city's luminaries, who arrived to pay their last respects.