Actress. A dancer, choreographer, and prolific character performer, she is remembered for her roles in dozens of British and Bollywood productions. Born Sahibazdi Zohra Begrum Mumtaz-ullah Khan in what was then British India, she was raised in Chakatra, educated at the rather strict Queen Mary College of Lahore, and following her graduation traveled by car and boat to Europe where she trained in modern dance at the Mary Wigman Ballet School of Dresden. Invited to join Uday Shankar’s ensemble in 1935, she toured Japan, Europe, and America; arriving in London around 1945, she joined the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) and the Prithvi Theatre, made her silver screen bow in 1946’s “Neccha Nagar” which earned a Golden Palm at Cannes, and in 1951 choreographed “Awaara” and “Baazi”. Zohra returned to India following the 1959 death of her husband but by 1962 was back in England where she appeared in a number of movies and several small screen features including “The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling”, “Never Say Die”, “The Courtesans of Bombay”, “The Jewel in the Crown”, and the iconic “Doctor Who” series. Relocating to India for the last time in the early 1990s, she kept busy well into advanced age, being seen on stage as well as in the 1998 “Dil Se”, “Straight From the Heart” (1999), the 2002 soccer-themed “Bend It Like Beckham” and 2004’s “Veer-Zaara. Zohra received multiple awards including the Padma Shri in 1998 and in 2010 her country’s second highest honor, the Padma Vibushan, was praised for her performance in the 2007 “Cheeni Kum”, and that same year earned her final credit with “Saawariya”. At her death from the effects of far advanced age a number of her films were preserved on DVD. (bio by: Bob Hufford)