Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair was an Indian poet, playwright, script writer, lyricist, orator, film director and actor, He was born on 16 October 1916 in the village of Thikkurissy, Nagercoil, then part of Travancore. He is best known as an actor in Malayalam cinema. He is the recipient of Padmashri from the Government of India, which is one of the highest civilian honours in India. In a career that spanned about 47 years, he acted in over 700 films. He is considered to be the first movie super star in Malayalam cinema. He launched his career as a playwright. His plays Mareechika and Kalakaran were hugely successful. He entered the Malayalam film industry in 1950.He debuted in the industry with the film adaptation of his breakthrough play Sthree. Thikkurussy coined screen-names of many actors in Malayalam cinema. Actors who were renamed by Thikkurissy include Prem Nazir, Madhu,Bahadoor,Jose Prakash etc. He died on 11 March 1997 aged 80 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, due to renal failure.