Oscar film actor, dead at 40
South African actor Presley Chweneyagae, the star of the South African film « Tsotsi », awarded with Oscar, died at the age of 40, his agent announced on Tuesday.
Chweneyagae acquired international fame in 2006, when the film placed in the criminal world of Soweto in Johannesburg won the prize for best foreign film.
« With deep sadness we confirm the premature death of one of the most talented and beloved actors in South Africa, Presley Chweneyagae, at the age of 40, » said the artistic agency Mlasa in a statement on his website.
This did not specify the date or cause of the death.
Presley was a « strong and authentic voice in African cinema », and his career included the theater, television and film, the agency said.
In his most famous film, Chweneyagae plays the role of a « tsotsi » – a colloquial term for the bat – who is trying to do the right thing when, without wanting, plunders a car with a child on the back seat.
The 2005 film is based on a novel of the Aclamated South African playwright Athol Fugard, who died in March this year at the age of 92.
« It is a story about hope, about forgiveness and also about the problems we face as South Africans: AIDS, poverty and crime, » Chweneyagae said in 2006, when South Africa celebrated the Oscar.
