How Tinsel Actor, Victor Olaotan, Died At 69

Veteran Nollywood actor, Victor Olaotan, was on Thursday reported dead after a prolonged illness.

The 69-year-old actor, who is best known for his role as Fred Ade-Williams in the popular TV series, Tinsel, was bedridden for five years after he was involved in a ghastly accident.

The actor was driving to a movie set in 2016 when the accident took place around Apple Junction, in Festac, Lagos.

He had, until recently, been battling for his life in a Turkish hospital for almost three years.

Olaotan’s death was confirmed by his wife, Julia Olaotan.

Mrs Olaotan said she is grateful that the 69-year-old actor can finally go to rest after suffering for years.

“He has tried. It is not easy to be trapped in your own body for five years. He can finally rest now,” she said.

The late actor was recently flown back to Nigeria, where his condition deteriorated when the family could no longer shoulder his medical expenses abroad.

In 2018, the actor requested financial aid to facilitate his treatments outside the country, after two years of being incapacitated. Shortly after, Nigerian billionaire, Femi Otedola, agreed to settle his bill of about N39m.

He started acting more than two three decades ago when he joined the University of Ibadan theatre group, with other artistes like Professor Wole Soyinka and Jimi Solanke among others.

Narrating how he returned to Nigeria with just $100, Olaotan said in an interview with a media house said; “In the beginning, I got into acting through a teacher who was a member of Ori Olokun Theatre group in the 70’s. He gave me the opportunity to act for the first time in my life. I was 15years old then”.

According to Olaotan; “From that time, I had contact with other acting groups like Jimi Solanke, Akin Sofoluwe, Yomi Fawole, and the late Laide Adewale.

“The irony of my life is that my father wanted me to be a medical doctor. I was good in Chemistry, Biology, and Further Mathematics.

“So automatically you know I am going to medical school. My father later died and maybe that was why I was able to do whatever I liked. I started playing football for Water Corporations in Ibadan and they were rivals to the then IICC shooting stars, now 3SC shooting stars.

“I played for five years and they later disbanded the team. My parents are partly Ijesha and Ogun state. I met with Laolu Ogunniyi, and I did another film with him before I went to America in 1978.

“While in America, I was involved in another professional acting. I met top Hollywood actors. With Laolu Ogunniyi, I was able to do the first television drama in Nigeria which lasted for three hours. I became popular in Ibadan and other western states.

“Anywhere I went in the western state, they always call me by the name of the character, Dotun Oluronbi.

“When I joined the performing theatre group in the University of Ibadan, Wole Soyinka was there, Dr Dapo Adegbite was there, Wale Ogunyemi, Jimi Solanke, Tunji Oyelana were all there.

“Tunji Oyelana was actually an actor but he did his music underground before he later took to music professionally. With all these great people around me, I was able to blossom into a fantastic actor. Because I had the same voice with Jimi Solanke, whenever I came on stage the directors no longer bothered about Jimi Solanke.

“With that I did so many productions like ‘Lion of the Jewel’ by Wole Soyinka. We were going to all the universities in Nigeria. Then, there were only five universities, University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Nigeria Nsukka and the University of Lagos.

“Acting then and now In my years of experience, I have come across every notable man that you know in the performing act, and I learnt so much.

“Unfortunately today, the platform does not have the enigma that it used to have in those days. Acting at that time was totally different from now.

“Now, it has become commercialized. Young actors who are coming today don’t have the opportunity to experience the training that we had. All of them want to be stars. We had to learn the hard way. We used to rehearse from 6pm till 6am the following day.

“That was how Prof Wole Soyinka rehearsed. Everybody can relax from morning till evening but once it is evening, that is when he works best, and I suspect that he writes most of his plays at that time too.

“The training I had here were very useful for me when I got to the US because I met one Hollywood actor who wanted to take me in, but because of my citizenship factor, I couldn’t get in. I wanted to register with the actors’ guild when a friend of mine called me that he had a production, that as professionals we should travel around.

“We left US and went to Canada, Europe and started acting. Sojourn abroad I traveled abroad in 1978 and came back in 1980.

“They were selecting eight and good performing artistes in Nigeria and I happened to be one of them. Others were Tunji Oyelana, Yemi Remi, Joe Adigwe, Demola Onibon-Okuta, Tayo Taiwo and others. We went to five states in United States and the president of the US at that time gave us a brooch each.

“It is called presidential medal. If you are giving that brooch, no matter what you do in America, you will be forgiving because it shows that you have been pardoned by the president.

“I don’t know where I put mine till today. I lost it maybe out of youthful exuberance. I went to three different universities in the United States to study acting.

“When I was in the US, I was working for a company that produced perfumes as an auditor, and I was earning $35,000 annually. Later it became $55, 000. I worked there for five years and later moved to a car manufacturing company.

“There I was earning $120,000 annually while my wife was earning $170,000 where she was working as an executive. We were making good money.

“I had about seven cars and three houses in Atlanta, New Jersey and one other city. I had to leave all that because of my tax issue.

“I wasn’t paying the right amount of tax I was supposed to pay and in that case if you are arrested, it is either you spend the rest of your life in jail or you pay triple of what you owe.

“When I calculated everything, it was over $4million. There was no way I could pay that money. The reason why I became a pauper was because I left all my properties in America.

“I had to run back to Africa. The IRS took over all the other properties. When I came back to Nigeria, I had only $100 and my suitcase with me. I couldn’t hold big money”.

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