Firoz Khan, the legendary actor from Bollywood, a producer and Director died late Sunday night at the age of 70, in his Bangalore farmhouse.

The actor had been diagnosed with cancer over a year ago.

Firoz Khan was born in Bangalore, India. His father was Sadiq Ali Khan Tanoli,who was a Pathan originally from Ghazni province of Afghanistan and his mother (Fatima) came from Iran.

He has three brothers Sanjay Khan, Sameer Khan and Akbar Khan. After his schooling from Bangalore, he arrived in Mumbai where he made his debut as second lead in Didi .

He married Sundari, a designer and part of the Page Three circuit in Mumbai. They had two children together, Laila and Fardeen Khan In 1985, after 20 years of marriage, he divorced his wife. For the next five years he was forced to play the second to last lead in most of the movies. Through the early 1960-70s he made low-budget thrillers opposite starlets.

He also appeared in an English-language film titled Tarzan Goes to India in 1962 opposite Simi Garewal. His first big hit was in 1965 with the release of Oonche Log. It was his first major hit, but failed to attain the success he had hoped. Again, in the same year, he played a sacrificing lover in the mushy musical Arzoo. With this, Khan earned his entry into A-list second leads.

With the film Aadmi Aur Insaan (1969), Khan won his first Filmfare award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 1971-75 he appeared alongside his real-life brother Sanjay Khan in the hit film Mela.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he was a leading Bollywood star. He directed and starred in many of his films. The movie Qurbani (1980) was the biggest hit of his career and also launched the singing career of Nazia Hassan.