Nargis, Indian actress (d. 1981)

Nargis Dutt (born Fatima Rashid; 1 June 1929 – 3 May 1981) was an Indian actress and politician who worked in Hindi cinema. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Indian cinema, she made her screen debut in a minor role at the age of five with Talash-E-Haq (1935), but her acting career actually began with the film Tamanna (1942).In a career that spanned three decades, Nargis appeared in numerous commercially successful as well as critically acclaimed films, many of which featured her alongside actor Raj Kapoor. She was the younger sister of the well-known actor Anwar Hussain. Her best-known role was that of Radha in the Academy Award-nominated Mother India (1957), a performance that won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She would appear infrequently in films during the 1960s. Some of her films of this period include the drama Raat Aur Din (1967), for which she received the inaugural National Film Award for Best Actress.Nargis married her Mother India co-star Sunil Dutt in 1958. Together they had three children, including the actor Sanjay Dutt. Along with her husband, Nargis formed the Ajanta Arts Culture Troupe which hired several leading actors and singers of the time and held stage shows at border areas. In the early 1970s, Nargis became the first patron of The Spastic Society of India and her subsequent work with the organisation brought her recognition as a social worker and later a Rajya Sabha nomination in 1980.Nargis died in 1981 of pancreatic cancer, only three days before her son Sanjay Dutt made his debut in Hindi films with the film Rocky. In 1982, the Nargis Dutt Memorial Cancer Foundation was established in her memory. The award for Best Feature Film on National Integration in the Annual Film Awards ceremony is called the Nargis Dutt Award in her honour. In 2000, she was honoured with "best actress of the millennium" by Hero Honda and film magazine Stardust. In 2011, Rediff.com named her "the greatest Indian actress of all time" and was listed in the "25 greatest Asian actors in history" by CNN in 2010.