MUNAIR Zacca, a versatile character actor who appeared in numerous stage, television, and movie productions, died in Kingston on April 2 at age 79 after ailing for some time.

Zacca, best known to many Jamaicans for playing gangster Sonny “Sonny T” Tavares in the long-running TV soap opera
Royal Palm Estate, had an enduring career. He appeared in plays including Rat Trap, Puppy Love, Old Story Time, The Game, Feminine Justice, Power Play, and Children Children, as well as the pantomime Morgan’s Dream of Old Port Royal.

His movie credits include Countryman, Crossfire and Shottas.

Film-maker Lennie Little-White, who knew Zacca from their days at Jamaica College in the early 1960s, cast him in arguably his best known role as sinister Sonny T in Royal Palm Estate, which aired on CVM Television.

Lenford Salmon was also a member of the Royal Palm Estate cast, playing government minister Lester Robinson. He knew Zacca for more than 40 years, and also worked with him in Puppy Love.

“I met Munair in the 1980s as a young actor. First saw him onstage in a play at the Little Theatre, Rat Trap, and thought to myself, ‘If I can be half the actor he is, I would be happy’,” Salmon recalled. “We both ended up as two of the lead actors on Royal Palm Estate. His character Sonny T literally defined the quintessential Jamaican conman, who used muscle and brain effectively. He would go to any ends to get his way, and oftentimes succeeded.”

A stalwart of the local theatre industry, Munair Zacca was from a family of Middle Eastern heritage. Former Chief Justice Sir Edward Zacca and current Sagicor Group Jamaica Limited President and CEO Chris Zacca are relatives.

He went into acting shortly after leaving Jamaica College, joining the theatre movement in the mid-1960s when it was led by stalwart actors such as Louise “Miss Lou” Bennett-Coverley, Lois Kelly Miller, Ranny Williams, Charles Hyatt, Leonie Forbes, and Reggie Carter.

Along with playwright Trevor Rhone, fellow actors Oliver Samuels and Carl Bradshaw, Zacca helped define the Jamaican actor during the 1970s.

He is the second member of the Royal Palm Estate cast to die in seven months. Ronald Goshop, who played Mackie, passed in August.