Kadal Mannan (the King of Romance) is no more. ‘Gemini’ Ganesan passed away in Chennai after a prolonged illness. He was 84.

In a career spanning over five decades, Ganesan acted in more than 200 films in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.

Ganesan was born into an orthodox Brahmin family in Pudukottai near tanjavur in 1920. While working as a lecturer in the Madras Christian College, in 1947 he met Ramnath, a cameraman at the Gemini Studios, who urged him to join the studio as an executive.  Ganesan’s good looks led him to lead roles in Tamil films and he became popularly known as ‘Gemini Ganesan’.

His most memorable films include "Vanjikottai Valiban", "Konjum Salngai", "Missiamma", "Pasa Malar", "Kalyana Parisu", "Kalathur Kannamma", "Karpagam", "Then Nilavu" "Iru Kodugal", "Punnagai" and the Hindi film ‘Miss Mary’.

He had acted with  "Sowkar" Janaki, Savithri, Vaijayanthi Mala, Devika and B Saroja Devi.

Ganesan was married to Savithri.

A Padmashree recipient in 1971, Ganesan had also won several other prestigious awards such as the "Kalaimamani Award",  MGR Gold Medal and Screen Life Time Achievement awards.

Ganesan is survived by seven daughters and a son. One of his daughters is the Bollywood actor Rekha.

The eldest among Ganesan’s daughters  is Dr Revathi Swaminathan, a radiation oncologist practising in Illinois, USA. Dr Kamala Selvaraj, Gemini Ganesan's second daughter, runs the G G Hospital in Chennai. Narayani Ganesan is a journalist with The Times Of India in Delhi. The youngest is Dr Jaya Shreedhar, a health advisor with Inter News Network.

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