Innocent, veteran Malayalam actor and ex-MP, dies aged 75

Innocent was known among the gifted actors of Malayalam cinema (Image: Twitter/@ShashiTharoor)

Veteran Malayalam actor and former Lok Sabha MP, Innocent, died at a private hospital in Kochi on March 26, days after being hospitalised due to health-related ailments. He was aged 75.

The actor, who was under treatment at the hospital since March 3, breathed his last at 10:30 pm.

"He was infected with Covid and had respiratory issues along with multiple organ failure resulting in heart failure", news agency PTI quoted the hospital as saying in a release.

A day before Innocent's demise, a medical bulletin said he was being put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which is a form of cardiopulmonary support used to pump out blood and oxygenate it outside the body using a machine.

Innocent had been reeling under ill-health for some time.

Earlier, in 2012, he was diagnosed with cancer. After battling the disease for three years, Innocent had in 2015 announced that he was finally free from it.

Congress leader and Thiruvanthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor condoled  Innocent's demise on social media. "Aside from being a brilliantly inventive & gifted actor, he was a fine human being whom it was a pleasure to interact with in the Lok Sabha (sic)," he tweeted.

Mourning the loss of character actor, comedian & one-time Kerala MP Innocent, who has just passed away at age 75. Aside from being a brilliantly inventive & gifted actor, he was a fine human being whom it was a pleasure to interact with in the Lok Sabha. RIP. Om Shanti. pic.twitter.com/m9mFGI8DwM

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) March 26, 2023

Innocent, born in 1948 in Kerala's Irinjalakuda, made his debut in regional cinema in 1972, when he acted in Nrithasala, a movie which featured the era's top actors Prem Nazir and Jayabharathi.

In a career spanning more than five decades, Innocent was seen in more than 750 movies. The last film which featured him was Kaduva, released in 2022.

With PTI inputs