Yemi Remi, the elder brother of the late veteran actor Segun ‘Chief Kanran’ Remi, has addressed several controversies surrounding his life and passing.
Speaking in a recent interview on Agbaletu TV, Yemi described Chief Kanran, who passed away in August, as “a lovable person”.
He, however, revealed that his brother’s main shortcoming was an inability to be straightforward about his needs, often leading to public misconceptions.
Yemi also dispelled the rumour that Chief Kanran died from injuries sustained in a house fire.
He stated his brother was 62 and in good health before his death, which appeared to result from a collapse in his bathroom.
Yemi, 70, attributed many of the false narratives to his brother’s own tendency to fabricate stories about his personal life, a habit he often warned him against.
“I want to beg people on his behalf. There was a time someone called me to say that his wife had died. I told the person that I was not aware of such a thing. The person wondered why I was not aware. I told the person that it was a lie. His wife did not die,” he said.
“What happened was that he had four wives and four children. Three of the wives died.
“I warned him about the bad things he professed about himself. There was a time when he started saying his car had been burnt, but it was a lie.
“We were returning from Ibadan one day after he was gifted money to buy a car, and the vehicle’s engine broke down along the way. I told him when he was telling people that his car had been burnt. We later towed the vehicle back to Lagos.
“His house also did not get burnt. It was another apartment close to his house. He had to jump the fence to escape. It was God who saved him at the time.”
The filmmaker also said he believed his brother was affected by the stereotyped “Chief” roles he played, which blurred the lines between his on-screen persona and real life.
“I told him to learn to be versatile. I told him he didn’t need to be a typecast,” he said.
“He lived a make-believe life, which I will never agree to.”
Yemi began his career as a stage-play practitioner under the legendary Hubert Ogunde.
He also trained at the Centre for Cultural Studies and won scholarships to study in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
He was the pioneer director of the television drama ‘Tinsel’ and the comic soap opera ‘Face 2 Face’.
