Vijayakumar Rangasamy is an Indian film and TV actor and politician who is noted for his work in the South Indian film industry, especially in the Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu movies. The veteran star was a popular personality in the Tamil cinema during the 1970's, 80's and the 90's, had a rather difficult start to his career, having made his debut on the silver screen with Sri Valli (1961), he did not get many roles after the debut film before eventually getting his major breakthrough with Ponnukku Thanga Manasu (1973) where the played a supporting role as the friend of the lead actor. He continued to play most supporting roles until the 1980's after which, his career hit a slump for a brief period. After a bit of struggle and being out of work for a few years, he made a comeback in 1988 and since then he established himself as one of the most accomplished actors in the Tamil film industry and along the way won several awards.
The veteran of more than 400 films and 20 TV series, has played almost all kinds of roles be it a cop or villainous roles with the utmost panache. By the advent of the 2000s, he started to play mostly senior roles, especially grandfather roles. His 2017 release includes 143, a Tamil musical romance film directed by Rishi G.