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From S Gunasegaran
M Manogaran, also known as Manogaran Maniam and fondly remembered as Mano Maniam, was an amazing personality. His sudden death on the last day of May in 2025 was shocking.
A man made for the theatre, Mano devoted his entire life to the performance arts. His role and contributions to the theatre are legendary and will be hard to emulate.
His training ground was undoubtedly his alma mater, Ipoh Anglo-Chinese School (ACS), which he attended from primary to secondary school, and later served as a teacher for a few years after graduating from Universiti Malaya with a Bachelor of Arts.
Founded in 1895 by Reverend WE Horley, ACS established the tradition of staging Shakespearean dramas and famous musicals in the 1950s. Over the years, it has produced many outstanding actors and directors.
Mano stands in the forefront of the list of luminaries that includes, among others, Teerath Tam, P Subramaniam, Chin Yoong Kim, Jamit Singh, Chin San Sooi, Chandrakasam, Romesh Roy, Eddy Chin, Chin Yoong Fee, Audrey Fong, Ong Su-ming, Yin Kim Ean and Tan Siew Oui, just to name a few.
As a student in ACS, I witnessed Mano’s stellar performance in the title role of Macbeth (1970) directed by Chin San Sooi. He was a teacher in ACS then and was reprising the role he first performed in 1962 as a student.
He not only possessed pure and natural acting talent but had a great and powerful voice to complement it, which together gave him a commanding stage presence.
How could one forget his thunderous voice piercing through the ACS stage, delivering the famous soliloquy in Macbeth:
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight?
Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?”
He also took on the title roles in Othello (1966), The King and I (1967) and King Lear (1969). The other performances that won him critical acclaim included Bluntschli in Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man (1969) and King Arthur in Camelot (1972).
In 1972, Mano made his directorial debut with As You Like It, and also played the role of Charles the wrestler. I was fortunate in being selected to play two small roles, one of which was a non-speaking part. My classmate Sasidharan (now Sharifuddin) provided me company.
It gave me the opportunity to witness the skills of Mano as director and actor, observe the fine performance of seasoned actors like Jamit Singh and Chandrakasam, and experience firsthand the art of drama making. It was a lot of hard and serious work, but there was a lot of fun, too.
Mano quit teaching, left Ipoh and relocated himself to the greener pastures of Kuala Lumpur. There, he honed his acting skills and quickly established his presence in the local theatrical scene. He rose to become one of the country’s leading and versatile stage actors.
His boundless energy and talents could not be confined to the stage and found expression in cinema and television, which brought him greater fame and recognition as an actor. His success on stage, cinema and television are too well-documented to be repeated here.
Although Mano’s name is synonymous with theatre, he is in fact a multi-talented man with accomplishments in various other fields.
It is often forgotten that he was an outstanding sportsman during his student days in ACS, possibly overshadowed by his histrionics.
He was a fine athlete and excelled in many games. He was the school football and hockey captain, and captain of Oldham House. He also played basketball for the school.
Not surprisingly, he was the president of the drama society and a school debater. And to top it all, he was appointed as the school’s deputy head prefect in his Upper Six year in 1964.
His active public life and contribution to society have been highlighted in the various tributes paid to him after his death in Free Malaysia Today, The Malay Mail, The Star, New Straits Times, Harian Metro, Malaysia Gazette, Astro Awani, Aliran and social media.
I have made it a point to attend the annual ACS alumni dinner to meet up with my classmates, friends and teachers. One person who would not miss this function was Mano, whom I always looked forward to meeting.
On Aug 4, 2024 he was there in his usual jovial mood, going from table to table and meeting the old salts of ACS, many of whom were taught by him. Little did I know that it would be our last meeting.
Mano is a true son of ACS and has made his alma mater proud. His death is a big loss to ACS and we will miss him dearly.
The Bard said all the world’s a stage, but unlike the poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more, Mano has played his part well and left a lasting impression on his audience.
It was a life well-lived and an inspiration to others.
Sir, you were the king of the stage during your time, which you have left for a better world. You have left a void that would be hard to fill. Farewell and fare thee well. May your soul be blessed.
S Gunasegaran is an alumni of Ipoh Anglo-Chinese School from 1963-1976 and an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
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