Vinod Raj (tamil Actor)

Vinod Raj (tamil Actor) Biography

Vinod Raj was a Tamil film actor known for character roles. His real name is John Victor. He is the best known as the father of south Indian super star Vikram. He is best known for his appearance as Trisha's father in Ghilli (2004) and also Kanthaswamy (2009) where he shared screen space with his son. Vinod Raj marked his film debut with Ghilli in 2004, and has played father to Vijay, Trisha Krishnan etc. He has made brief appearances in TV shows too. He is a relative of Tamil actor-director Thyagarajan and actor Prashanth is his nephew. He passed away on 31 December 2017 following a heart attack at his home in Mahalingapuram, Chennai. He was 80 years old.

John Victor was born in the year 1937 in Paramakudi, Tamil Nadu. He took the screen name of Vinod Raj for movies. Victor also dreamt to become an actor when he was young. He ran away from his home to pursue his dreams. However he managed to act in supporting roles in Tamil films and television serials. He later fulfilled his cinema dreams through his son Vikram, who went on to become a superstar in Tamil cinema.  Vikram took lessons from the failed career of his father, professionally trained himself, worked in theatre and then tried luck in films.

Vikram’s son Dhruv, is also an actor, belong to third generation. Vikram’s real name was Kennedy. As he disliked his name, he renamed it as Vikram, taking "Vi" from his father's name, "K" from his own name - Kennedy, "Ra" from his mother's name and "ram" from his sun sign, Aries.

As a film actor, Vinod Raj had a late entry to silver screen. He was first seen in a brief role as Trisha’s father in Ghilli (2004). He also shared screen space with Vijay in the same film. Quite interestingly he shared screen space with both these actors for the movie, Thirupaachi in 2005. He also made brief appearance in Tamil movies - Thambi (2006) and Kanthaswamy (2009).

Published: September 17, 2018

Updated: September 17, 2018