Tariq Yunus

As a young man (his brother being the politician Kunwar Khalid Yunus[https://twitter.com/kunwarkhalidyun/status/1126412137197395968 @KunwarKhalidYun at Twitter]{{Dead link|date=June 2025}}), Yunus gained his first acting part in a children's play for local radio and began to work regularly for this media. He joined a theatrical group run by the Arts Council while at college studying Geology.[https://www.infotextmanuscripts.org/webb/webb_round_deca.pdf Decameron '73 programme, The Round House - 1973]

Two months before he was due to take his Geology Degree exams in 1962, Yunus headed to Britain in the hope of making his fortune. Arriving with only £10 in his pocket, he had to get a job helping a milkman.{{cite news |title=Sunil lands in trouble |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/790672725/ |date=16 April 1988 |accessdate=9 June 2025 |work=Derby Evening Telegraph |page=13}} Living on his wits, he became a professional card player.{{cite news |title=Obituary: Working the Passage from India |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/260558503/ |date=15 September 1994 |accessdate=9 June 2025 |work=The Guardian |page=38}}

Without any proper training, Yunus began to work as an extra which led to having parts in The Wednesday Play, Crown Court, Sykes, Father Brown, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Angels, the Doctor Who classic The Robots of Death, The Professionals, Strangers, Terry and June, The Dick Emery Show, Hammer House of Horror, Shoestring, Minder, The Bill, Around the World in 80 Days, Inspector Morse and House of Cards. Along the way, he achieved bigger and more regular roles such as playing a con-man in A Passage to India (for Play for Today), Jashir Singh Mahail in Birmingham-based drama series Gangsters, Dr. Khan in We'll Think of Something and Harry Patel in News at Twelve.

Film roles included East of Elephant Rock, Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse, The Golden Lady, Ashanti, Who Dares Wins, A Talent for Murder, The Fourth Protocol, Partition, The Deceivers and Scandal.[https://web.archive.org/web/20170426063745/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba1d446bb Tariq Yunus] at the British Film Institute

The 1988 Screen Two play Lucky Sunil was inspired by Tariq's tales when he first came to London, with the actor co-starring in the production.{{cite news |title=Will He Be a Law Maker or Breaker |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/806890462/ |date=15 April 1988 |accessdate=9 June 2025 |work=Perthshire Advertiser |page=23}}{{cite news |title=A passage to England |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/807143214/ |date=16 April 1988 |accessdate=9 June 2025 |work=Huddersfield Daily Examiner |page=15}}

Later in life, Yunus concentrated more on writing and developing his own projects, which led him back to his native India but still continued to act. For many years, he was a founder member of Equity's Afro-Asian Committee, promoting the careers of actors from other ethnic minorities.{{cite news |title=Equity gives film a stormy passage |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/259549403/ |date=18 August 1983 |accessdate=9 June 2025 |work=The Guardian |page=22}}

While directing a play at Bombay's Prithvi Theatre in 1994, Yunus died from a heart attack whilst suffering with typhoid in the house of his friend Jalal Agha, the son of Bollywood actor Agha.{{cite book |last1=Hasan |first1=Khalid |author1-link=Khalid Hasan |title=Remembrances |year=2001 |publisher=Vanguard |isbn=9694023521 |page=59 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SgxlAAAAMAAJ&q=tariq+yunus+died |language=en}} (However, his obituary claims he died in hospital.) He is buried in Karachi.

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• {{IMDb name|0950987|Tariq Yunus}}

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Category:1946 births

Category:1994 deaths

Category:Indian male television actors

Category:Indian male film actors

Category:20th-century Indian male actors