Kabir Bedi (Born 1946)

Kabir Bedi is an Indian actor who has also worked in Hollywood and is popular in Europe. With his career spanning three decades, Kabir has been credited with working in three continents and has worked through three mediums - television, stage and films. He is best known for his role in the James Bond movie ‘Octopussy’ and as ‘Sandokan’ in the mega-hit French-German-Italian TV series that was broadcast across Europe.

Kabir was born into a Punjabi Khatri-Sikh family in Lahore and later lived in Delhi, India, His mother Freda Bedi converted to Buddhism and became a nun and his father Baba Pyare Lal was a famous author. As a child, Kabir attended school in DPS, Mathura Road, Delhi and completed his graduation from St. Stephens College, Delhi. He financed his studies by working as an announcer for All India Radio while studying at the university and also worked as an interviewer, quiz master and a presenter of his own television show while still being actively involved in theatre. Kabir later appeared as the face of the Will’s Cigarette commercial in the year 1968 while working as a Film and Radio Chief at Lintas and later S.H Benson’s in Mumbai where he met his first wife Protima and later married her. He started his own documentary and advertising film production company called Dimension 70 in the year 1970 and 1971 saw him debuting in the Indian film industry with O.P.Ralhan’s ‘Hulchal’. An Italian crew shooting in India in 1972 later casted him for a lead-role in an Italian produced mega-hit television series ‘Sandokan’ - the name by which he is popular even today in Europe. He moved to Hollywood in 1979 and later married his second wife British-born fashion designer Susan Humphreys and later starred in the James Bond 007 movie, Octopussy. In 1993 he married for the third time his leading lady Nikki Vijayakar Moolgaoker in Alyque Padamsee's production of the Shakespeare play ‘Othello’. Kabir was also seen in the mega-hit TV series ‘The Bold And The Beautiful’. Kabir is also a voting member of the Oscars and is the winner of the prestigious David di Donatello Award.