Soumitra Chatterjee or Soumitra Chattopadhyay (Bengali: সৌমিত্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়) (January 19, 1935 — November 15, 2020) was an Indian film actor. He was best known for his collaborations with Oscar-winning film director Satyajit Ray, with whom he worked in fourteen films. In 1999 Soumitra Chattopadhyay was also, the first Indian film personality, conferred with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's highest award for artists. He was also the winner of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award which is India's highest award for cinema. In 2017, exactly thirty years after auteur Satyajit Ray was honoured with France's highest civilian award- the coveted Chevalier of Legion of Honor, thespian Soumitra Chatterjee, arguably, the most prominent face of Ray's films, also received the prestigious award. He was the seventh recipient of this award.