By Dr. Sohail Ansari
Another actress coming to Karachi was
Patience Cooper
Born in 1905, Patience Cooper was an Anglo Indian from Calcutta. She was a superstar of early Bollywood with a successful career in both silent and sound films. She began her career as a dancer in Bandmann’s Musical Comedy and later joined Jamshedji Framji Madan’s Corinthian Stage Company.
Patience is proclaimed to be the first person in Indian cinema to play double role; two sisters in the film Patni Pratap, and a mother and daughter in Kashmiri Sundari. She won a beauty contest in London.
Her initial marriage with MA Isphahani at the age of 21 did not last long. Thereafter, she married Gul Hameed Khan who died of lymphoma some six years after the wedlock. Following the second marriage, she adopted Islam and changed her name to Sabra Begum. However, she remained in good terms with Isphahani.
She migrated to Pakistan in 1947. Patience Cooper is known to have fostered 17 children during her lifetime. She lived the last of her days with her two adopted daughters in Karachi and died in 1983.
