Robert John Christo, popularly known as Bob Christo in the Hindi film industry, died of a heart attack at the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology in the City, on Sunday evening.
The 72-year-old actor was admitted to the hospital following a heart attack on Friday morning.
He underwent an angioplasty as he had developed 90 per cent blockage. Despite efforts made to conduct a surgery on him, he suffered another heart attack on Sunday and eventually succumbed.
Work permit
Bob, an Australian, came to Mumbai because he was awaiting a work permit to work in Muscat, which required him to be out of Muscat.
He got his first break, as a villain, in the Hindi movie Abdullah. Since then, Bob decided to stay in India and has appeared in over 250 movies.
His roles in films included that of British officer, goon, fighter, henchman, gambler, bandit, hitman, gangster. He even played as himself in a couple of movies.
Bob Christo was limited to typecast and stereotypical roles acting as a henchman, lead villain’s sidekick or a British officer in period films. He is best known for that Amitabh fight scene in Don. In US, he used to work as a visiting professor at premier business schools.
Bob was living in Bangalore for the past five years along with his friend and restaurateur Khaleel Pasha who was with him during his last days.
“Bob used to help me a lot in promoting my business by giving public appearances. In fact along with actor Akshay Kumar, we were planning to release Bob’s autobiography in June this year,” he said.
Bob’s family members and some of the Bollywood actors are expected to arrive in Bangalore on Monday.
He has won several awards for his villain roles. His other popular movies include Kaalia, Kismat, Gumrah, Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja and Agnipath.
Bob is survived by his wife Nargis and two sons, Sunil and Darius.