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Bollywood actor Feroz Khan, once dubbed "the Clint Eastwood of the East" because of his maverick roles and manly swagger, died Monday after a long fight against cancer, his publicist said. He was 69.
"Feroz Khan passed away post-midnight at the Feroz Khan ranch in (the southern city of) Bangalore," the publicist said.
Khan was diagnosed with cancer last year and was being treated at a private hospital in Mumbai but discharged himself earlier this month. His family was at his bedside when he died, she added.
The actor was born to a father with Afghan roots and a mother of Iranian origin and brought up in Bangalore. He found fame in "Oonche Log" (High Society) and in the saccharine-sweet musical "Arzoo" (Wish), both in 1965.
Khan was known to push boundaries. As a producer and director, he made "Dharmatma", the first Hindi-language movie made on location in Afghanistan and inspired by the Oscar-winning Hollywood epic "The Godfather".
But it was with the 1980 Hindi/Urdu gangster film "Qurbani" (Sacrifice) that he scored his biggest hit as an actor, producer and director, introducing foreign locations to Bollywood that are now the norm.
He repeated his success with films like "Janbaaz" (Braveheart) starring a young Anil Kapoor, who later went on to feature in the Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire", and "Dayavaan" (Kindhearted) in the 1980s.
In a 2003 profile, news and information website rediff.com said of the actor: "Khan did not walk, he swaggered... He left his shirt unbuttoned to reveal a brawny chest and sported tight-fitting trousers.
"A cigarette dangled from his lips, a femme fatale hung on his arm and a horse waited for his bidding. He spoke with an American twang. The Clint Eastwood of the East seems to have come via Texas, not Bangalore."
One of Khan's two children, Fardeen, followed him into Bollywood but has yet to make as big an impact as his father.
