Veteran film star Tony Ranasinghe breathed his last this morning

Veteran film star Tony Ranasinghe breathed his last this morning, He was 77 years old when he passed away at a

private hospital in Colombo.

Tony Ranasinghe who made his mark in the Sinhala Silver Screen for over 4 decades was born as Ranasinghe Hettiaarachchige Ignatius Anthony Silva in Modera began his acting career in 1963 with Dharmasiri Wickramaratna's 'Ran Thodu' stage drama. It was an outstanding achievement of Tony to be bestowed the Governor General's Award as the Best Actor in his very first performance. Incidentally his cinema career too started that very sane year with Dr. Lester James Pieris' 'Gamperaliya' film. Initially Tony won the award as the Best Supporting Actor of Gamini Fonseka's film 'Parasathu Mal'.

Tony Ranasinghe who became the Best Actor in all three years 1969, 1976 and 1979 was also involved in allied fields such as novel-writing, dramas and screenplays.  Tony Ranasinghe also translated a number of world famous dramas of Shakespeare.