Johnny Walker was a famous Indian actor and comedian, who performed in more than 300 movies. He was born as Badruddin Jamaluddin Kazi on 11 November, 1920. He belonged to a very poor family, his father was a mill worker. To look after his 15-member family, he tried his hands at all sorts of petty works. He even worked as a conductor for the B.E.S.T bus in Bombay.
While traveling in one of these buses, he was discovered by actor, and script-writer Balraj Sahni, who was impressed by Johny Walker when he was entertaining the passengers of the bus with his pranks and tomfoolery.
Balraj Sahani recommended Johnny Walker's name to Guru Dutt for the role of comedian in the film Baazi. During the screen test, he performed the role of a drunkard and Guru Dutt was so impressed that he gave him the screen name, "Johnny Walker" after the famous brand of Scotch Whisky and also offered a role in Baazi. In the film industry, he was a close friend of the film director and actor, Guru Dutt and was deeply moved by his untimely death in 1964.
Johnny Walker was married to Noorjahan, the actress Shakila's sister. He met Noor on the sets of Mr. and Mrs. 55, directed by Guru Dutt in 1955. He has six children, three daughters (Kausar, Tasneem and Firdaus) and three sons (Nazim, Kazim and Nasir). His son Nasir has established himself as a famous film and TV actor.
Guru Dutt in CID picturized a song 'Aye dil hain mushkil jeena yahan' on Johnny Walker, which became a rage at that time. As a result, the distributors from hereon insisted that a movie starring Johnny must carry a song picturised on him. Hence, in films like Chori Chori (All line clear), Pyaasa (Sar jo tera chakraye),Aar Paar (Na na na tauba), Mr & Mrs 55 (Jaane kahan mera jigar gaya), Choomantar (Gareeb jaan ke humko na tum bhula dena), Naya Daur (Main Bambai ka babu), Madhumati (Jungle mein mor nacha) and Door Ki Awaaz (Hum bhi agar bachhe hote) and Naya Daur (Mai Bambai ka babu), have some great songs filmed on him.
Johnny Walker created ripples of laughter in the movies like Baazi (1951), Aar Paar (1954), Mr & Mrs 55 (1955), CID (1956), Chori Chori (1956), Pyaasa (1957), Naya Daur (1957), Madhumati (1958), Mere Mehboob (1963), Anand (1971) etc. His presence in serious movies gave a break to the dense drama. He acted with the tragedy king Dilip Kumar in the films Naya Daur, Madhumati and Paigham in the 1950s, Dil Diya Dard Liya in the 1960s and Gopi in the 1970s. His concise role in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand, was widely acclaimed where he played the role of a stage director who gives pithy philosophies of life to the dying cancer patient played by Rajesh Khanna. After a gap of about a decade and a half, Johnny Walker was once again seen in Chachi 420 (1997), in the role of a makeup man.
He passed away on 29th July, 2003.
Some of his films include:
