Veteran Tamil actor Vinu Chakravarthy died at his home in Chennai on Thursday at the age of 74. He had been undergoing treatment for ailments brought on by age.

Chakravarthy has played character, villain and comic roles in 1,002 films including 30 Malayalam and five in Telugu, Indiaglitz reported. He started his career as a script writer with Kannada director Puttana Kanagal. His first film as an actor was also a Kannada film called Parasangada Gendetimma.

He wrote the screenplay for South Indian star Silk Smitha’s debut film Vandichakkaram. Chakravarthy is believed to have discovered the famous actress at a flour mill in Chennai, The News Minute reported.

He has shared screen space with major Tamil film industry stars including Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijayakanth, Sathyaraj, Ramarajan,Vijay, Ajith and others. He has co-starred with Rajnikath in 25 films.

The veteran actor is survived by his wife Karnappoo, son Saravanan and daughter Shanmugapriya.