Roshan Seth

He has played Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India from 1947 to 1964, in four different productions: Gandhi (1982), Bharat Ek Khoj (1988), Food for Ravens (1997) and The Last Days of the Raj (2007).

Mid 1970s: Retired from acting and returned to India to pursue a career as a journalist and editor.

A native of New Delhi, India, British character actor of theater and film Roshan Seth honed the skills he learned at London's Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in British repertory theater. His first break came in Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which toured in 1972.

Seth entered feature films in Richard Lester's Juggernaut (1974), but because subsequent filmmakers only wanted Seth for ethnic roles, his career abruptly stalled.

Discouraged, he abandoned acting and returned to India, where he worked as an editor and journalist until the early '80s, when Richard Attenborough asked Seth to play Pandit Nehru in Gandhi (1982). Shortly thereafter, Seth essayed Indian author Victor Mehta and toured the globe in playwright David Hare's biography A Map of the World.

After the play's Broadway run, Seth's movie career took off, with roles in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and David Lean's A Passage to India (1984).

Appearing as Salieri in Cornell University's production of Amadeus. [April 2001]