Actor Ramesh Deo, who enjoyed a popular and prolific career in Marathi and Hindi films over a staggering seven decades, died of heart attack at a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday. He was 93.

Several roles performed by Deo remain vivid as ever. The only and wily distant relative who sweet-talks an elderly Meena Kumari to move in with them, only to reduce her to a house help in ‘Mere Apne’ (1971). The amiable but worldly-wise doctor, who sits with his wife (real-life wife too, Seema) in ‘Anand’ (1971) as Rajesh Khanna sings ‘Maine Tere Liye Hi Saat Rang Ke Sapne Chune’.

Who would have forgotten the scene where ‘Jumping Jack’ Jeetendra sings and whips him in the same breath, belting out the title track in ‘Jaise ko Taisa’ (1973). Only a first-rate actor could have displayed the different shades that these roles required with such effortless ease. Deo, also a performer of repute in the Marathi theatre world, did it with ease and elan.

Born in Kolhapur, Deo went to school and college there and got a break in the Marathi film industry as a junior artist in the early 1950s. He went on to set up his own production house: Ajinkya Theatres. Deo became a top star. ‘Umaj Padel Tar (1960), ‘Vardakshina’ (1962), ‘Molkarin’ (1963) and ‘Aparadh’ (1969) are just four of his memorable films.

Director Phani Majumdar’s superhit, ‘Aarti’ (1962), the first film produced by Rajshri Films, was among his early Hindi films. He got the much heftier part of a senior police officer in the thriller ‘Love And Murder’ (1966) directed by the famous Marathi director Raja Paranjpe. The veteran was to play a cop in dozens of other Hindi films, ‘36 Ghante’, a desi remake of Hollywood’s ‘The Desperate Hours’, being one of them.

Deo was the lead villain in the Amitabh Bachchan-Hema Malini starrer ‘Kasauti’ (1973), a box-office hit. Deo continued to be a familiar face in Hindi films over the decades. Some years ago he was a regular on TV, endorsing products like Surf Excel, Vijay Sales and Lufthansa. It helped that with his sons, he also ran a vastly successful ad production house. According to IMDB, his last film, ‘Jeevan Sandhya’ (Marathi) was released in 2021.

Deo’s grandfather came to Kolhapur to work as an engineer for Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj and his father worked as a legal advisor to the Kolhapur Sansthan. According to his company website, Deo acted in over 285 Hindi films, 190 Marathi films and 30 Marathi dramas. He is survived by wife Seema, and sons Ajinkya and Abhinay. Ajinkya is an actor too and Abhinay is known for directing films such as ‘Delhi Belly’.

Deo contested the 1996 Lok Sabha election from Kolhapur at the insistence of Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray but lost in a triangular fight.