Yakub Khan Mehboob Khan

Yakub Khan (3 April 1903 – 24 August 1958), popularly known as Yakub, was an Indian actor born into a Pathan family in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. He is best known for his comic and comic villainous roles.

He began his career with roles as an extra, but eventually was cast in more important roles, frequently playing the parts of heroes and villains. He became one of the most renowned screen villains, while achieving equal success in comedy and character roles. Yakub appeared in over 100 films. His comic pairing with Gope and Agha was so well liked by the audiences, that they all appeared in multiple films together. For example, Sagai (1951), Patanga (1949) and Beqasoor (1950) . Yakub was one of the highest paid actors from 1930 to early 1950.

Director Yakub directed three films; Sagar Ka Sher and Uski Tamanna in the 1930s, and Aiye in 1949. Sagar Ka Sher, or Lion of Sagar, was the first film he directed in 1937 under the Sagar Movietone banner. His co-stars in this film were Bibbo, Pesi Patel, Sankatha Prasad, Raja Mehdi and David. Uski Tamanna, also known as Her Last Desire, was made in 1939 under Sagar and directed by Yakub. The film starred Yakub, Maya, Bhudo Advani, Kaushalya, Sankatha Prasad, Satish and Putli. He directed his third and last movie, Aiye, in 1949 under the Indian Production banner. It had Sulochana Chatterjee, Masud, Jankidas, Sheela Naik, and Ashraf Khan along with Yakub. The music in this film was composed by Nashad (Shaukat Dehlvi) and was Mubarak Begum's first film as a playback singer. Yakub's second cousin Allaudin was the song recordist for this film. However, he lost money on this film and called it the biggest mistake of his life.

Yakub was a deeply religious person and was called 'Maulana' by his friends.

Filmography Yakub acted in over 100 films in a career covering 34 years. A brief filmography is listed.