Johnny Walker (actor)

Despite often playing the roles of a drunkard, Johnny Walker was a teetotaller and claimed to have never drunk alcohol in his life. Johnny Walker died on 29 May 2003 at age 78 years old after a period of illness.

Johnny Walker was particularly satisfied with his work in B. R. Chopra's Naya Daur (1957), Chetan Anand's Taxi Driver (1954) and Bimal Roy's Ma, humati (1958). His final film came after an absence of 14 years when he took a role in a remake of Mrs. Doubtfire titled Chachi 420 (1997). During the intervening period, he had a successful business dealing with precious and semi-precious stones.

Some songs were written especially for him. His drawing power at the box office was such that distributors would insist on him having a song and would pay extra to ensure it. He is the second actor to have one or more Hindi films in his name, Johnny Walker (1957), the first being the actress, Madhubala with a 1951 eponymous film, but the only one with two (the other being Malayalam film, Johnnie Walker. He was the first actor to keep a secretary/manager. He was the first actor to stop working on Sundays. He was the first actor to bring Colloquialism to cinema Taxi Driver. He also produced and directed the 1985 film Pahunche Huwey Log.

Johnny Walker nurtured his desire to work in films and entertained passengers while working the BEST buses with amusing routines, hoping that he would at some point be spotted by someone with connection in a film. Balraj Sahni was either at that time writing the script for Baazi (1951), or acting in Hulchul, told Kazi to demonstrate his drunkard act to Guru Dutt. From that meeting, he gained a role in Baazi. It was Guru Dutt who gave him the name of Johnny Walker, a reference to the brand of Scotch whisky, when he was inspired by Kazi's display in the role of a drunkard.

Thereafter, Walker appeared in all but one of Dutt's movies and the director encouraged him to ad lib and to draw on his varied life experiences. He was primarily an actor of comedic roles but towards the end of his life became disenchanted, saying, "Earlier, comedians had a respectable position and an almost parallel role with the protagonist, now it is just to bring a touch of humour. I don't buy that." His attempts to portray heroic personae in the eponymous Johnny Walker and Mr. Qartoon were not successful but films such as Mere Mehboob, C.I.D., Pyaasa and Chori Chori made him a star. His heyday was in the 1950s and 1960s and his later career was affected by the death of Dutt, who had greatly influenced it, in 1964. He worked with directors such as Bimal Roy and Vijay Anand but his career faded in the 1980s. He was unwilling to adopt the cruder form of comedy and changed priorities that had become the vogue, saying that.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}

Badruddin Jamaluddin Kazi (11 November 1924 – 29 July 2003), better known by his stage name Johnny Walker, was an Indian actor who acted in around 300 films. He was best known for his humorous roles in Indian films, notably being typecasted as a hapless drunkard.