Roy de Silva

Chathurartha Devadithya Gardiyawasam Lindamulage Roy Aloysius Felix de Silva, popularly known as Roy de Silva (රෝයි ද සිල්වා; 30 August 1937 – 30 June 2018),^[1] was a Sri Lankan actor and film director in Sri Lankan cinema. He entered the film industry as an actor in 1964 with Sujage Rahasa directed by Palaniyaandi Neelakantan. Arose as an actor, Silva immediately changed the pathway towards cinema direction, becoming one of the most successful film makers in the Sri Lanka film industry.^[2] His blockbuster movies such as Re Daniel Dawal Migel series, Cheriyo series, Clean Out, and Sir Last Chance were economically successful and made hallmarks in the industry.^[3][4]

Personal life

Born on 30 August 1937, as Chathurartha Devadithya Gardiyawasam Lindamulage Roy Aloysius Felix de Silva, he quickly changed the name into Roy de Silva with onset of cinema career. He was born in Yatawatta, Matale as fourth in a family with seven siblings.^[5]

He is married to fellow Sri Lankan actress 'Sumana Amarasinghe and they have two children.^[6][7][8]

He first attended to Yatawatta Sinhala School, and then moved to St. Sebastian's College, Moratuwa and completed advanced level from St. Joseph's College, Colombo. Just after completing school times, he started to act on many stage dramas such as Narbona Hee Ranaweera Sebala and Surath Liliya.^[9]

Career as an actor

De Silva came to silver screen through Sujage Rahasa directed by P. Neelakantan, who was a famous South Indian director that accompanied with MGR as well. The film starts showing on 24 December 1964 and earned a good reputation by the critics. His success was achieved through the stylish acting, Tamil indian actor like personality and fluency in Tamil.^[10] This in turn gave him many opportunities to act under many tamil director ion early days. One notable thing was happened on 1972, when Silva's film Sujeewa surpassed blockbuster gross earning than Edath Suraya Adath Suraya film acted by most famous Sri Lankan actor of that time Gamini Fonseka.^[11]

De Silva's acting career mostly came through directors like Joe Dev Anand, Danny Mariyadasan, M S Anandan, K Venkat,Kingsley Rajapakse, Robin Tampoe, Lenin Morayes, and Cyril P. Abeyratne. De Silva has a rare ability, that can remember long dialogues by reminding first instance.^[12]

As a singer

Apart from direction and acting, De Silva also performed as playback singer in few occasions. His playback singing came through films such as Tom Pachaya, Minisun Athara Minisek and few more.^[13]

As the Acting President of OCA

After the death of Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, De Silva served as acting president of Olympic Council of Asia after his death. And later in 1991, he retired of acting president of Olympic Council of Asia and takes office to Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the current president of the Olympic Council of Asia.

Death & Legacy

On 30 June 2018, De Silva died being treated for a heart attack at Sri Jayawardenepura General Hospital. His remains were buried on 2 July 2018 at Borella Cemetery.^[14]

On 1 September 2018, Roy de Silva's autobiography was launched at Tharangani Hall. The book is named as Ada Siyawasaka Sadadara Roy.^[15][16]

Filmography

• No. denotes the Number of Sri Lankan film in the Sri Lankan cinema.^[17]

As a director

De Silva is primarily director comedy films, which earned him one of Sri Lanka's promising directors in Sri Lanka cinema industry. His first direction came during 1977 film Tom Pachaya, which was co-directed with Stanley Perera. Up to 2016, he directed 33 films, with more than 70 percent of the films easily passed 100 days and reached blockbuster hits.^[18] De Silva's first English film direction came through Its's Matter of Time in 1991.^[19]

References

External links

• රෝයි-සුමනා මතකරූ ඡායා
• සුමනා අමරසිංහ මරණාසන්න මොහොතේ අත්දැකීම් විස්තර කරයි
• ප්‍රවීන සිනමාකරු රෝයි ද සිල්වා අභාවප්‍රාප්ත වෙයි
• Veteran actor Roy de Silva passes away at age 80