Pop star, actor and comedian Ronnie Leitch will be missed by cricket fans whom he entertained for several years at the annual Dialog Cricket Awards ceremony.
He was undoubtedly one of the stars or the most anticipated stage artiste at the Awards night and kept invitees, cricketers and well-wishers spellbound with his singing and spontaneous humour as he featured alongside the veteran singer Sunil Perera and many other performers.
Leitch’s burial took place on Thursday evening at the general cemetery in Mount Lavinia amid hundreds of mourners after a prayer service at Christ Church in downtown Dehiwela.
“He was an entertainer par excellence and had the knack to make everyone smile. I can say that he was a legend, an icon who died very young”, said Rajith Fernando who was Sri Lanka Cricket’s media manager and part of the organizing committee of the Awards ceremony for three years in a row.
Leitch was one of the few entertainment stars who found favour with all communities in the country and will be remembered for his friendly and charming interaction with the common people who saw him as their folk hero.
He initially shot to fame with a Sinhala smash hit “Thattaya” or bald-headed man and never looked back as he turned the all time Western favourite ‘Living Next Door to Alice’ into a kind of a local version that endeared him to the rural population.
Leitch was 64 years when he died of a heart attack while in Perth, Australia where he was an invited guest performing at a show.