Leading Actors and Actresses
The stars of the first Sinhalese film Kadavunu Poronduwa, Rukmani Devi and Eddie Jayamanne, were the first to achieve popularity across the country. They had gained a certain fame through their roles in the plays of the Minerva group which contributed to their emergence in the film industry. They continued to star in films through the 1950s and the early 1960s.
In 1960, Gamini Fonseka emerged as a star in the historical film Sandesaya. Though the main role of the film was played by Ananda Jayaratne, Fonseka outshone the actor in his first major role. Fonseka had his next hit role in Ran Muthu Duwa where he found a popular co-star in actress Jeevarani Kurukalasooriya. Fonseka's other major films of the 1960s include Deewarayo, Adata Wadiya Heta Hondai and Chandiya.
In 1969, Vijaya Kumaratunga emerged as a star with a lead role in Hanthane Kathawa. Over the next decade he was the most popular leading actor next to Gamini Fonseka. In addition to Bollywood derived commercial films, he also acted in artistic films like Bambaru Awith, Eya Dan Loku Lamayek and Ganga Addara. His death in 1989 had a huge effect on popular cinema.
Read more about this topic: Cinema Of Sri Lanka
Famous quotes containing the words actors and actresses, leading, actors and/or actresses:
“It has no share in the leadership of thought: it does not even reflect its current. It does not create beauty: it apes fashion. It does not produce personal skill: our actors and actresses, with the exception of a few persons with natural gifts and graces, mostly miscultivated or half-cultivated, are simply the middle-class section of the residuum.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seems to be altogether peculiar to man, and speech is the great instrument of ambition.”
—Adam Smith (1723–1790)
“The actors today really need the whip hand. They’re so lazy. They haven’t got the sense of pride in their profession that the less socially elevated musical comedy and music hall people or acrobats have. The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“... actresses require protection in their art from blind abuse, from savage criticism. Their work is their religion, if they are seeking the best in their art, and to abuse that faith is to rob them, to dishonor them.”
—Nance O’Neil (1874–1965)