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LIONEL WENDT ACTOR BROADCASTER
SINHALA CINEMA STAR AND BUDDHIST EDITOR KARL GUNASENA DEAD
( By Walter Jayawardhana)
A leading Lionel Wendt actor, popular broadcaster, Sinhala cinema star
and an editor of a Buddhist journal ,Dhamma , Karl Gunasena (83) died
and was cremated in London, in his adopted home.
“Karl Gunasena, actor, philosopher, broadcaster, traveller, husband,
grandfather, ‘interminable student’ and a dear friend, was
a one of those rare gems Sri Lanka had ever produced,” said Dr.
Tilak Fernando writing an obituary .
He was cremated at a Buddhist funeral at North London Crematorium, July
5.
Born Kalidasa Gunasena he was widely known as Karl Gunasena and won
the hearts of Sinhala cinema goers by acting as the villain opposite
Gamini Fonseka in Getawarayao( directed by Mike Wilson) and Chandiya,
that helped take away Sinhala cinema from the then traditional Madras
style melodramas.
A Southerner hailing from Galle he was later educated at St. Thomas
College Mt. Lavinia and Royal College Colombo and became a leading actor
in the Lionel Wendt in the 1960’s while he was also a popular English
announcer for the then Radio Ceylon.
“The year 1965 became a hallmark in his life,”said his friend
Tilak Fernando, “ where his performance took a three hundred and
sixty degree turn to something different. In London, attached to the
then Greater London Council (GLC) and under Ken Livingstone, the present
Mayor of London, he undertook duties as a planning officer in charge
of prestigious buildings in London.”
A Christian by birth he later read widely in Buddhism, was closely attached
to the Sri Sadhdhatissa International Buddhist Center in kingsbury and
became a Buddhist in 1965. He was the editor of the monthly magazine
Dhamma published by the Center. “His wife Renaira, who was decorated
by Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth II, as the first Sri Lankan in the
UK with a MBE for her services in Buddhism attached to the British Libraries,
no doubt would have influenced him towards his aspiration to Buddhism”,
Fernando said.
With popular Sinhala stage actors Namel and Malini Weeramuni and his
wife he also tried to revive Sinhala culture and drama in London for
the xpatriate community and produced such works as The bear, Kattandiya
and Golu Birinda. He also acted in a teledrama produced in London by
Wimal Alahokoon.
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