Augustine

Augustine Biography

Augustine was one of the leading character artists of Malayalam cinema. He died on November 14, 2013 at a private hospital at Kozhikode. Noted heroine of Malayalam, Ann Augustine is his daughter. He became active in the film industry during 1980’s and has numerous memorable character roles, both serious and comic. Sreedharante onnam thirumuravu, Sadayam, Commissioner, Neelagiri and Ekalavyan are a few among those memorable character roles. Last released movie was Shutter. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and has also produced Kavya Madhavan-Indrajith starrer Mizhirandilum in 2004.

Augustine was born in Kunnumpuram, Kodancheri as the son of Mathew and Rosy. Augustine started his career through theatre and it gave way to movies. He has been a part of school dramas since an early age. After college life, he became fully active in theater. He was associated with theatre of Aahwan Sebastian in those days. It was through ‘Upasana’, playwright by Surasu that Augustine became popular as an actor. When this play made to movie in the year 1979 titled, Kalopasana, Augustine got a role in this movie. But the movie was not released.

During 1981-82, aide Nellikode Bhaskaran, he was more active with theatre life. He again went to Kodambakkam, dreaming about cinema. He lived in the home of Malayalam comedian, Bahadur in those days. He got a role in the movie Swapnalokam. But the failure of the movie prompted Augustine to give up his actor dreams. Then with the help of his friends, he took a visa to go to gulf. He reached at Mumbai to only find that someone has fooled him with fake visa. He spent 2 years in Mumbai and returned back.

It was just co-incident that Malayalam film genius, actor-director Sreenivasan gave him a role in the movie, Gandhi Nagar Second Street. Sreenivasan was in search of a location of his movie and Augustine just accompanied him. He started his career as a location manager and a character artist. His comic role turned out to be the turning point of his career and from late 1980’s, he stayed in Malayalam cinema as a character artist till he passed away. Even while he was seriously ill, he appeared in small roles in the past few years.

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Updated: January 31, 2014