Veteran Nollywood actor, Francis Duru is dead following a brief illness.

His family announced the news on his official Instagram page in the early hours of Friday, thanking fans and well-wishers for their support.

Duru made a lasting mark on the Nigerian film industry through decades of memorable performances. He appeared in several notable productions, ranging from classic home videos to contemporary cinema.

He gained widespread recognition for his role as young Ahanna in the 1995 classic Rattlesnake, a film that helped establish him as one of the recognisable faces of early Nollywood. Throughout his career, he showed versatility by acting in drama, thriller and comedy films.

Some of the notable movies associated with his career include Rattlesnake (1995), Blood Money (1997), Forces of Nature (2006), Home in Exile (2010), Stigma (2013), Lipstick (2016), Who Killed Chief? (2017), Merry Men: The Real Yoruba Demons (2018), The Good Husband (2020) and Blood Vessel (2023).

In Merry Men, he played Inspector Jack, while in the 2023 Netflix thriller Blood Vessel, he portrayed Pere. His body of work reflects the evolution of Nollywood, from the VHS home-video era to the rise of streaming platforms and internationally distributed Nigerian films.