One of the best actors Nollywood has ever produced was late Sam Loco Efe who died on August 7, 2011. The late comic actor was born on December 25, 1945 to the family of Arase Efeimwonkiyeke.
BACKGROUND:
According to research, His father was of Benin ancestry who worked in Eastern Nigeria and his mother was a petty trader who sold bean cakes. He spent his childhood in Ebonyi state. Following the death of his father while in elementary school, the deceased spent more years in elementary school because he had to help his mother in order to earn more income for the family.
Late Sam Loco has his first theatre experience in elementary school when he stared in the stage play, The Doctor In Spite of Himself. Although the play came last but the deceased was announced as the best actor which earned him a scholarship to complete his elementary education.
Late Nollywood actor Sam Loco Efe. Source: Premium Times
After his secondary education, he became a member of a traveling theatre group where he played the role of soccer (moniker locomotive) which was later shortened to Loco.
During the civil war, Sam Loco fought on the side of his Biafra people until he returned to Benin in 1968, where he started the Ovonranwen Theatre Group with their debut production being Ogierhiakhi’s Obaiwape. Fortunately for him, his earnings from acting was not encouraging which made him travel to Lagos to seek better career opportunities and to explore a career in football.
He got his first job in 1972 working for Michelin Tyres. Late Sam Loco applied for the position where he passed the oral interview but failed the driving test because he went to driving school a day before the interview. The deceased worked for the company by selling tyres in Lagos, Abeokuta and Ijebu Ode.
Soon after, he quit his job with Michelin Tyres and moved to Dunlop. While working for Dunlop in Benin, he was a cast member of NTA Benin's television series, Hotel de Jordan and also performed in a rendition of Ola Rotimi's The Gods are Not to Blame. In 1977, he left sales to pursue his career in acting.
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Retro: The unfulfilled dream of late veteran actor Sam Loco Efe. Source: Austine Media
HIS DEATH:
Vanguard reports that the fallen hero, Sam Loco Efe, was found dead in a hotel room Sunday morning. No one know the cause of his death but was suspected to be an asthma attack, as Ventolin inhalers were found beside him in the room. The room door was forced open after he failed to come down after retiring to bed the previous night.
HIS UNFULFILLED DREAM:
According to a close friend and former vice-president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) south-east, Steve Eboh, Sam Loco died without fulfilling the dream of taking a deserved rest at his Abakaliki, Ebonyi state farm house.
Eboh said: “Because I was nominated for the City People Awards and couldn’t go to see him in Owerri, he told me he would first stop over at Yenagoa and on today travel to his farm in Abakaliki, Ebonyi to wait for me. He said he was going to the farm house to rest and take a break from the rigors of film shooting and editing. That never happened because he died the next morning.”
His death shook the movie industry and was mourned by the then president of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and Babatunde Raji Fashola, who sent condolense messages to his family.
RIP!
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Source: Naija.ng
