One of the most annoying things in day-to-day life is Wikipedia Articles That Assume You Know What You’re Talking About. Specifically, articles that are written at a level where you’d assume the person would have better resources to look the thing up than Wikipedia. Specifically, in this case, the article about neuroendocrine tumors. I can tell you nothing about them, because I haven’t gone to med school. (That’s not entirely true; I’ve taken college-level biology and can piece together some of the article. But I’m still seriously out of my depth.) I know it’s not brain cancer, which it was speculated that Irrfan Khan had, but I don’t know his prognosis, which is what I was hoping to find in the first place. Not, I suppose, that it’s any of my business.

Interesting, then, that the first time he really came to my attention was when he was playing a character seeking medical treatment. Mental health care, to be specific. Oh, I’d seen Slumdog Millionaire, and he was good in that, but it’s not really what I noticed. Certainly it was not a role that would make me deliberately seek him out later. He’s one of at least two people whose appearance on In Treatment made me want to see more. Though, sigh, not The Amazing Spider-Man, certainly, and I’m one of the people who didn’t particularly care for Life of Pi.

And when I was explaining who he is to my boyfriend, his response was, “Is he the guy who got killed in a helicopter in Jurassic Park?” I blinked, and we established that he meant Jurassic World, which I haven’t seen and therefore cannot answer the question. This is, frankly, a sign that Khan has not really been used well by the American entertainment industry. And I’m not a huge Bollywood person, I’m afraid, so that doesn’t help. As I’ve said before, I admire anyone who can act in two languages, and English and Hindi aren’t even on the same continent. But it does mean that I’m not that into most of his work.

I really wish either he’d do more that I’d like or that I could like more of what he’s done, because he’s a very talented actor. He didn’t do The Martian because of scheduling conflicts. (And was replaced with Chiwetel Ejiofor, which is this whole other discussion.) If I’m reading between the lines correctly, he was offered the part of Nemo in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen—which is not a good movie but one I strangely enjoy despite its awfulness. Yes, I’m perfectly aware that actors shouldn’t choose parts based on what I’d like to see—the only actor I know who’s done Hollywood movies is my first cousin once removed, and not even he should listen to me. But still; Irrfan Khan seems poorly used, and it makes me sad.

Still, I have hopes. A search of not-Wikipedia sites suggests Khan may well have a better-than-average chance of surviving his cancer, so we can hope for a long and productive acting career to come. Now, if only we can get over Hollywood’s failure to understand how to use him, we’ve got something going.

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