Yusuf Khan (born December 11, 1922), also commonly known as Dilip Kumar is a legendary Indian Bollywood film actor.

He is considered to be one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema. Starting his career in 1944, Kumar has starred in some of the biggest commercially successful films from the late 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1980s. His performances have been regarded as the epitome of emoting in Indian Cinema.

His first film Jwar Bhata, was released in 1944 which went unnoticed. In 1947 he shot to prominence with the film Jugnu which was his first major hit.. In 1949, he co-starred with Raj Kapoor in the film Andaz, which went to become a huge success and made him a star.. Throughout the 1950s he was one of the biggest stars of Bollywood along with Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand.

He became known for playing tragic roles in popular films such as Deedar (1951), Amar (1954), Devdas (1955) and Madhumati (1958) which earned him the title of “tragedy king”.

He was also successful in playing lighthearted roles such as playing a swashbuckling peasant in Aan (1952), a comedy role in Azaad (1955) and the social musical film Naya Daur (1957). The 1960 historical film Mughal-e-Azam which is as of 2007, the second highest grossing film in Hindi film history had him play the role of the Mughal crown-prince Jehangir, the son of Akbar.

He was the first actor to receive a Filmfare Best Actor Award amd holds the record for most number of Filmfare Awards won for that category. Though he has done all kinds of films – he balanced a wide variety of roles

Dilip Kumar’s younger brother Nasir Khan was also an actor and appeared opposite him in Ganga Jamuna (1961) and Bairaag (1976) as well as some other films in the late 1940s and 1950s. His career was not as successful however. He died in 1974. Nasir Khan’s son Ayub Khan is also currently an actor in the industry. Nasir Khan’s wife was 1950s actress Begum Para who is making a comeback to films after 50 years in the film Saawariya in 2007.

Dilip Kumar’s siblings who are still alive include brothers Ehsan Khan and Aslam Khan who live in Mumbai, a sister Farida who lives in Fresno, California.

Dilip Kumar’s first romantic interest was rumored to be the already married Kamini Kaushal. Then Kumar was said to be romantically linked to the actress Madhubala. It is claimed that Madhubala’s family would not allow the couple to marry; some conjecture that this was because Madhubala was the main source of income for her family.

Dilip Kumar married actress and “beauty queen” Saira Banu in 1966 when he was aged 44 and she was 22. At the time, gossip columnists predicted doom for the high-profile couple, but the union has been one of the longest lasting marriages in Bollywood. The marriage was briefly under threat when Kumar married a woman called Asma in 1980 but the marriage was quickly dissolved.