Bob Christo, also known as Robert John Christo, was an Australian actor who primarily worked in the Hindi film industry, mainly in supporting roles. He began his film career with Sanjay Khan`s Bollywood flick Abdullah in 1980 and subsequently acted in more than 200 flicks in the 80s and 90s. He was prominent in the roles of a henchman or an Army General. Some of his popular films include Gumraah, Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja, Mr India, Mard, Nastik, Qurbani and others.
Early Life of Bob Christo
Bob Christo was born in the year 1938 in Sydney, Australia, as Robert John Christo. He was a qualified Civil Engineer. He arrived in Mumbai during the time when he was awaiting a work permit to expatriate to Muscat. However in the city he got introduced to the famous Bollywood actress Parveen Babi and the latter helped him to enter the world of Hindi cinema.
Career of Bob Christo
Bob Christo got his first break in the Hindi film industry as an actor in the year 1980 in the Hindi film Abdullah in which he portrayed the role of a typecast villain. With this, he decided to stay back in India and in the following years appeared in a number of Bollywood flicks. Apart from Hindi films, Bob Christo also worked for the Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil movies. Throughout his film career, he was restricted to stereotype roles, playing either a British Indian army officer in pre-war related movies or an antagonist to the main villain. Bob Christo had acted in numerous hit flicks of Amitabh Bachchan in the 80`s and early 90`s including Jaadugar, Toofan, Agneepath, Geraftaar, Kaalia, Mard and many more.
The famed dialogue of Amitabh Bachchan from the movie Kaalia `Hum jahan khade hote hain line wahin se shuru hoti hai` was actually mouthed first by Bob Christo in the flick. Bachchan says his lines after him only. In the early 2000, Bob Christo shifted to Bengaluru and began working as a Yoga instructor. Since the year 2003 he detached himself from the Hindi film industry. On 17 June 2008, it was officially announced by Adil Ray as a part of the BBC Asian Network"s Bollywood month, about searching the Bollywood legend Bob. However he remained unsuccessful.
Death of Bob Christo
Bob Christo died on 20th March 2011 in Bengaluru at the age of 72 owing to rupture of left ventricle valve.
