Bengaluru, Sep 8 (PTI): Noted south Indian actor of yesteryear R N Sudarshan died at a private hospital here today due to age related ailments.

The 78-year-old Sudarshan is survived by wife Shylashri. "He was brought with hip fracture three days ago. He passed away at 12.45 hrs," the hospital where he was admitted said.

The actor was the fourth son of R Nagendra Rao, a well-known film personality in the Kannada film industry.

He had acted in more than 250 films, carving a niche for himself in Kannada, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil movies.

Born on May 2, 1939, Sudarshan had debuted in 'Vijayanagarada Veeraputra' at the age of 21. After playing the lead role in about 60 movies, he started appearing as a villain in rest of the movies.

He had sung songs in some Kannada movies. Hoovondhu Balibandhu from the movie Shubhamangala (1975) and Irabeku, Irabeku Ariyada from Naguva Hoovu (1971) became quite popular.

His last Kannada movie was 'Super' starring Upendra, before switching to small screen.