Career
While issuing tickets as a B.E.S.T. bus conductor, Badruddin used to entertain passengers aboard with some antics. These antics caught the attention of actor and script-writer Balraj Sahni in 1950 while he was once traveling in a B.E.S.T. bus on which Badruddin, then 27, was working as a conductor. Sahni was penning at that time the script for the movie, Baazi (1951), and introduced Badruddin to Guru Dutt as a candidate for the role of a comedian. Badruddin's screen test consisted of acting as a drunk, and he did it so well that Guru Dutt gave him the screen name, "Johnny Walker", after the famous Scotch whisky brand. (Walker was always a teetotaler.) Later Johnny was cast as the hero in a movie, Johnny-Walker (1957), which was named after himself.
He had a close friendship with Guru Dutt, who would often change scripts of his movies to accommodate a role for Johnny. The death of Guru Dutt in 1964 deeply impacted him.
During the 1970s through the '90s, he had a few small roles in movies. His role in Anand showed that he could excel in a serious role even if it was for only a few minutes. His last performance was in actor/director Kamal Hasan's Chachi 420 in 1998; he had performed at the request of poet/director/writer Gulzar who had scripted that movie.
He also starred in the Punjabi film Teri meri ek jindari.
Read more about this topic: Johnny Walker (actor)
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