Kumar Pallana was born in 1918 in a small village outside of Mumbai. He started his yoga practice around the age of 6 and learned from traveling Sadhus in India. He had a main teacher who was a bookkeeper and worked in an office. During the lunch hour he would come to Kumar’s gymnasium and teach the kids, have his lunch and then go back to work. Kumar always wished he could see him one more time so he could thank him, because of him he was able to perform on some of the best stages in the world.
Kumar in a handstand By the age of 13, Kumar was known as the master of the handstands and went on to become one of the top acrobatic entertainers in the world. He was featured on several TV shows including “You Asked For It”, “The Ed Sullian Show”, “The Mickey Mouse Club”, “Captain Kangaroo”, and several others. The picture to the left is of him performing a handstand on the edge of a 5 story building in the 1930’s. He said it was not a perfect handstand and that was leaning because the wind was blowing away from the building.
Kumar in The Terminal Most recently, Kumar began his acting career at the age of 78 when he held a role in Wes Anderson’s “Bottlerocket” He also held roles in several other movies including The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Darjeeling Limited, Bomb The System, Romance & Cigarettes, Another Earth, 10 Items or Less and many others. His biggest role was a leading role in Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal (2004) with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Kumar passed away in his California home on October 10th, 2013 at his home in Oakland, California. Friends from around the world sent condolences, wrote cards, or sent flowers. Among them were Steven Spielberg, Danny Glover, Ben Stiller, Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson, and countless others. A minute of silence was held in his honor at Wembley Stadium and his picture was shown on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Steven Spielberg wrote that the world had lost a bright start that day.
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