‘I Started Acting Four Years Before Him,’ Lere Paimo Counters Pete Edochie

. ‘I believe the Yoruba industry started first,’ what the veteran actor said during an interview with actor Kunle Afod

Veteran Yoruba actor, Lere Paimo, has countered veteran actor Pete Edochie’s claim about the beginning of his acting career, saying he started acting four years before the Things Fall Apart star.

86-year-old Paimo said he began acting in 1958, while Edochie recently said his acting career started in 1962, when he was 15.

The issue of seniority among Nigeria’s veteran actors resurfaced after Edochie challenged actors who claimed to have started their careers before him to come forward and prove their claims.

Paimo responded during an interview with actor Kunle Afod, posted on YouTube on Monday, insisting that he was already acting when Edochie began his career.

“I started acting in 1958. I met Hubert Ogunde, who was senior to me and others, and there were big movies produced back then,” he said.

Edochie had recently cited his performance in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in 1962 as evidence of how far back his acting career dates.

Paimo, however, also pointed to the earlier Yoruba travelling-theatre tradition, particularly the late theatre legend Hubert Ogunde, as evidence that indigenous Nigerian theatre predated English-language film productions.

“I heard from history that when he (Hubert Ogunde) started in the ’40s, there was nobody before him, and we never heard from history that the English industry, or any movie done in the English language, started before him.

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“Since we didn’t hear or read that in any history books or documentation, I believe the Yoruba industry started first.

“There was nothing like English-speaking movie production then; Ogunde started by producing movies in the Yoruba language, which he used to educate everyone who watched those movies back then. We never heard about English-speaking movies until now, when, with civilisation, we started hearing and seeing that there are English-speaking movies,” he said.

Paimo also addressed claims about whether other theatre practitioners, including Baba Olumegbon, may have started acting before Ogunde.

“I don’t know if Baba Olumegbon started before Ogunde, but all I know is that Ogunde was the person I knew who started acting first. Although I have been hearing about him for a long time, I can’t say he was senior to Ogunde,” Paimo said.

Paimo began his career in the Yoruba travelling-theatre tradition and worked with the Oyin Adejobi Theatre Group, founded by veteran theatre practitioner Oyin Adejobi.

He later joined Duro Ladipo’s Theatre Group, where he played Chief Basa in the stage production Obamoro.

He subsequently became one of the prominent figures in Yoruba theatre and film, gaining wider recognition for his portrayal of Soun Ogunola in the epic Ogbori Elemosho.