Salman Rushdie wanted to be an actor.
Salman Rushdie wanted to be an actor before finding fame as an author
The 76-year-old novelist has made his name as one of the world's most controversial authors but revealed that his only other ambition was to tread the boards professionally after taking part in a number of productions as a student.
He told The Sunday Telegraph: "My only other fantasy was to be an actor. At Cambridge, I took part in a lot of student theatre and only contributed a little to university magazines. I played quite a wide range of parts, in Brecht’s 'Scenes from the Third Reich', Ionesco’s 'Rhinoceros', and Ben Jonson’s 'The Alchemist'."
The 'Satanic Verses' author - who lost his sight in one eye amid an unprovoked attack whilst on-stage in New York last year and has now charted his recovery in new memoir 'Knife' - then dragged up to play a part in a play in the late 1960s and quickly learned that the acting world wasn't for him.
He said: "After I left university in 1968 I dived into the then-flourishing fringe theatre scene in London, mostly at the Oval House in Kennington, where I took part in the anti-war show originated in New York by the Cafe La Mama, 'Viet Rock', and in another contemporary play, 'Rainy Day Women', by Dusty Hughes, in which I played an agony aunt, wearing a blonde wig, a long black dress, and a Zapata moustache.
"Fortunately these experiences showed me that it would be unwise to pursue a thespian career, and I retreated to my literary attic.
"Oh, and the purpose of life is to put it to good use. We only get one shot at it, so don’t waste it."
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