Nigeria has lost another brilliant actor, Victor Olaotan.
The actor particularly popular with TV series, ‘Tinsel’, was said to have passed on after having bedridden for some time, following an accident.
Billionaire Femi Otedola had initially intervened in his case, paying the N39m required for his overseas treatment.
While hope rose, he was said to have relapsed and later needed more N91m for treatment.
His wife, Julia, had called for help early this year.
Olaotan died only days after the Nigerian film industry lost screen star, Rachel Oniga, whose burial programme is on in Lagos.
Although details of the passage are still scanty, journalist and film critic, Shaibu Husseini, broke the news of Olaotan’s death early Friday.
He was 62.
Born in Lagos in 1952, Olaotan studied at the University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University and Rockets University, United States.
He began his career as an actor when he joined the University of Ibadan theatre group, where he met other artistes, such as Professor Wole Soyinka and Jimi Solanke.
He became an actor at the age of 15 years through a teacher who was a member of the Ori Olokun Theatre group in the early 70’s, prior to the death of his father.
“After his father died, he travelled to the United States of America in 1978 but returned to Nigeria in 2002 to continue his career in acting. He became more popular in 2013 after his leading role in a Nigerian Soap opera, ‘Tinsel’ that began airing in August 2008. The veteran actor was involved in a motor accident in October 2016 and suffered nervous system injury . He was driving to a movie set when the accident took place around Apple Junction, in Festac, Lagos,” one of his profiles indicate.
