Kala Keerthi Madurawela Arachchilage Christy Leonard Perera (born 27 July 1932 – died 23 December 2015 as ක්‍රිස්ටි ලෙනාඩ් පෙරේරා) [Sinhala]), popularly as Christy Leonard Perera, was an actor in Sri Lankan cinema as well as a musician and comedian.^[1][2]

Personal life

Perera was born on 27 July 1932 in Colombo.^[3] He completed education from St. Lucia's College Colombo 13 .^[4] His father worked as a port checker. He has two sisters. After the sudden death of father, his mother worked as a midwife at Suleiman Hospital. In the meantime, his older sister died suddenly. The other sister also died with that sadness.^[5]

He was married to Mary Loretta Rachal Perera, a trained teacher.^[6] Perera got married Rachel at St. Lucia Cathedral in Kotahena on 7 August 1982 at the age of 43. At that time, Perera was working at the Polythene Factory in Kotahena.^[5]

He was a devoted Roman Catholic and regularly attached with St. Lucias Catherdral, Kotahena. He died on 23 December 2015 at the age of 83.^[7] His remains were brought to his residence at Maligawatte housing scheme.^[8] His final rites was held on 26 July 2015 at Borella Cemetery.^[9][10]

Cinema career

In 1946 he participated amateur program at Radio Ceylon coordinated by Thevis Guruge. He imitated comedian Eddie Jayamanne and finally won the contest.^[11] In 1948, Perera joined as a comedian in Radio Ceylon. Perera learned music under renowned composer B. S. Perera. Then he worked as a musician and playback singer. His first song was Kullen Pola Pola.^[6] Some of her popular songs are, Mama Badapissa, Amma Kiyana Kiyatha Haki andAduru Walawe Punsada were recorded for HMV labels.^[12][13] He sang the duet Hitha Yana Atha Yannata Heka with Gamini Fonseka and then sang the song Tikiri Lande Ali Nawathina Colomba Nagare with H. R. Jothipala.^[14] His song Sakala Sirin Piri Siri Lankawe was an integral part of music shows back then.^[15]

His classmate Prem Jayanth was the main actor in the film Sujatha.^[11] With the guidance from Jayanth and fellow actor Dommie Jayawardena, Perera entered cinema.^[16] He started cinema career in 1954 with the film Warada Kageda directed by T.R. Sundaram. The film was released at Gamini theatre, Colombo and became highly popular.^[6] Then he acted in the film Adata Vediya Heta Hondai produced at Hendala Wijeya studio, Sri Lanka's first production house. He continuously established as a prominent comedian of early 1960s and played popular roles in the films Chandiya, Sukumali, Suneetha, Sundara Birinda, Allapu Gedara and Hondama Welawa.^[17] His only television acting came through Athma Pooja directed by Ajith Perera. But the teledrama was not aired.^[5]

His last film was Onna Mame Kella Panapi premiered on September 3, 1976.^[11] He quit from acting after the death of his mother in 1979. The song Amma Kiya Kiyatha Haki Ekama Landakatai was written by Karunaratne Abeysekera for Perera's mother.^[5] In 1994, he directed the film Aragalaya.

On 17 August 2002 Perera was honored with a festive ceremony.^[5]

Filmography

References

External links

• Yesteryear artistes to be felicitated
• කලාශිල්පී ක්‍රිස්ටි ලෙනාඩ්ගේ අවසන් කටයුතු
• වරෙක සිංහළ සිනමාවේ විකට රජා ගායක ක්‍රිස්ටි ලෙනාඩ් ජිවිත සිනමාවෙන් සමුගනී