Bob Christo

Bob Christo Biography

Bob Christo was a noted character artist of Bollywood of Australian origin, who was active in the industry during 1980’s and 1990’s. He appeared mostly in negative shaded roles as the assistant of main antagonist or Army general of the Bollywood movies. Qurbani (1980), Kaalia (1981), Nastik (1983), Mard (1985), Mr India (1987), Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja (1993) and Gumraah (1993) are his most notable Bollywood appearances and in all these movies, he played grey shaded roles. Sanjay Khan's Abdullah in 1980 marked his Bollywood debut and he acted in more than 200 movies. He died in Bangalore on 20 March 2011 aged 72.    

Bob was born in Sydney, Australia in the year 1938. His full name is Robert John Christo. He was a civil engineer by profession before entering Bollywood movies. He was awaiting a work permit to Muscat and reached Mumbai to meet top film actress Parveen Babi. It was Babi who introduced him to film world. Abdulla in 1980 was his first break to the industry and after that he decided to stay in India and continue with acting. His entry into Bollywood was just co-incidence.

His teeth-gnashing was famous in films and was one of the most popular ‘bad men’ of Bollywood during 1980’s. He was mostly casted in villain roles or British Officer before Indian Independence. But the sad part is that he got type casted into similar kind of roles only. Yet Bob Christo has a cult following of sorts. Apart from Hindi, he has also acted in a few south Indian movies. He has been frequently featured in most of the movies of Amitabh Bachchan throughout 1980’s and 1990’s. Towards the end of his life, he relocated to Bangalore and worked as a yoga instructor.

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Updated: March 24, 2014