Veteran actor Dejumo Lewis, famed for his role as Kabiyesi in the popular series The Village Headmaster, has died at the age of 80.
Fellow actor Saidi Balogun announced his passing in an Instagram post on Saturday.
“Good night DEJUMO LEWIS, may your soul rest in perfect peace.RIP,” he wrote with a photo of the man.
Celebrities like Eniola Badmus, Daddy Showkey and Funsho Adeolu mourned in the comment section of the post.
Dejumo Lewis was popularly known for his role as Oloja in the classic drama, The Village Headmaster.
Created by Ambassador Segun Olusola, The Village Headmaster started as a radio programme in 1958.
It ran as a TV series from 1968 until it rested in 1988 on NTA.
A short-lived revival as The New Village Headmaster ended in 1991.
In April 2022, Telecommunications company Globacom announced the return of The Village Headmaster to television with Dejumo retaining his role as the village king.
Dejumo was born in Lagos. After his primary education at the Holy Cross Primary School in Lagos, he wanted to be a priest. He spent six years at St. Theresa Catholic Minor Seminary in Ibadan, and four years at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Major Seminary, also in Ibadan, where he graduated in Philosophy.
After 10 years of seminary studies, he decided to “end it all, leave the school and start living a normal life.” “The same year I left the seminary was the year production of The Village Headmaster drama began,” he recalled. It is a measure of his acting talent that he got the important role of Kabiyesi without formal acting training.
He later worked in the television industry as a programmer, and then, he said, “trained to become a producer/director, both here and abroad. I studied Celluloid.” He received a master’s degree in Communication Arts from the University of Ibadan.
At NTA, he moved from programme planning to production and was trained in Holland, England and Germany. After the series was stopped, he did television movies and was posted to NTA Ibadan as manager, programmes. He held the position for five years, and was posted back to Lagos, where, according to him, “I was forcibly retired in 1999.”
He has been featured in other films like Power of One, A Place in the Stars, Cross Roads, Abeni and Agogo Eewo.
