Veteran Actor!!! Why I Cry A Lot In Yoruba Movies – Pa. Tunbosun Odunsi, Veteran Actor

Pa. Tunbosun Odunsi is one of the veteran Nollywood Stars, who has rocked the entertainment industry for more than 50 years. He is not just popular on TV today, he had been popular when he started acting alongside the late Hubert Ogunde in the 50’s.

Recently, Pa Tunbosun Odunsi was one of the guests of Dele Odule when City People Event Centre played host to him at Gbagada in Lagos and what amazed many was Pa Odunsi’s fluency in English. It may interest you that he speaks impeccable English despite being a primary school certificate holder. City People reporter engaged him for an interview. excerpts

How did acting begin for you? 

My name is Olatunbosun Odunsi. How did I start? I started acting in Lagos with Olayemi Sycostration Orchestra at Ile-Nla in Ebute –Metta. They performed for churches and because they would not leave Lagos and I was interested in going round, I had to join the late Hubert Ogunde. I worked with him for almost 8 years before I left to form my group, the Araba concert, then.

And before I joined acting, I was a student and right from school, I joined Syncopation Orchestra and when I got out of school and after obtaining my G2, I joined them fully before I moved to Baba Ogunde’s group.  I also briefly worked at a company in Apapa as a  Machine Operator, Then I later moved fully to Baba Ogunde.

Acting for over 50 years, was there, anytime you felt like living acting out of frustration?

There wasn’t and this is simply because I took it as my real profession and I would not like anything to take me out of it. The nature of our job then also took us around the country and outside Nigeria.

So, I never gave it a thought quitting. But at a time, I embraced agriculture because I was into animal husbandry. I had my poultry and the poultry gave me enough money to finance my acting career and each time I go for rehearsals, my birds. Suffer. Many died, while I  was away on location.