Bob Christo

Q: When did Bob Christo die?

Bob Christo died on March 20, 2011.

Q: How old was Bob Christo when they died?

Bob Christo was 72 years old at the time of death.

Q: What was Bob Christo's cause of death?

The cause of death of Bob Christo was heart attack.

Robert John Christo was an Australian–Indian civil engineer and actor in Hindi films. Starting with Sanjay Khan's Abdullah (1980), he went on to act in over 200 Hindi films in the 1980s and 1990s, including Qurbani (1980), Kaalia (1981), Nastik (1983), Mard (1985), Mr India (1987), Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja (1993) and Gumraah (1993), mostly playing roles as a non-Indian henchman or Army General.

Career

Born in Sydney, Christo was a qualified civil engineer of paternal Greek and maternal German descent. He had two brothers, Helmut and Mike. Despite his Australian nationality, Christo spent much of his youth in West Germany qualifying as an engineer following his return to Australia. Known for his brawny physique and bald-headed look, Bob arrived in Bombay, India in 1978 while awaiting a work permit to Muscat, Oman following several job stints to support his three children including in Vietnam following the death of his first wife in a car accident in 1974. It was in Mumbai that he was introduced to Bollywood actress Parveen Babi, who helped him transition into Hindi films.

He received his first break when he constructed the jungle palace for Francis Ford Coppola in Apocalypse Now. He was noticed as a villain in the Hindi movie Abdullah in 1980. Christo decided to stay in India and appeared in over 200 movies in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, playing a recurring typecast villain. Also after many years, Sanjay Khan gave him a break, firstly in The Sword of Tipu Sultan and then in The Great Maratha, where he played the iconic character of Ahmed Shah Abdali.

During the later stages of his life, he relocated to Bangalore in early 2000, where he started working as a Yoga instructor and remained disconnected from the Hindi movie industry since 2003.

Death

The 72-year-old actor died of "rupture of left ventricle valve" in Bangalore on 20 March 2011. He is survived by his wife Nargis and two sons, Darius and Sunil. He has two daughters, Monique and Nicole from his previous marriage.