Who Was Actor Victor Olaotan? A Look At Victor Olaotan’s Biography, Car Accident, And Illness

Victor Olaoluwatoyefunmi Olaotan was a veteran Nigerian actor, who was best known for his role as Fred Ade-Williams in the long-running soap opera Tinsel.

Victor Olaotan was born on February 17th, 1952 in Lagos, Nigeria.

Victor Olaotan attended the University of Ibadan and the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife to study drama. He also studied at Rockets University in the U.S.A.

Victor Olaotan was married to Julian Olaotan.

Career

Victor Olaotan began his career as an actor in the early ’70s at an early age of 15 years, when he joined the University of Ibadan theatre group, where he met other artists, such as Professor Wole Soyinka, Jimi Solanke, among others.

He worked with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Ibadan. While at NTA Ibadan Olaotan produced English and Yoruba dramas.

Victor Olaotan traveled to the United States of America in 1978, where he schooled at Rockets University. But he returned to Nigeria in 2002 to continue his career in acting. His career kicked off in 2013 after his leading role in Tinsel that began airing in August 2008, and he played the character, Fred Ade-Williams, for about 7 years.

Victor Olaotan acted alongside, Chris Attoh, Gideon Okeke, Funmi Holder, Damilola Adegbite, Ireti Doyle, Linda Ejiofor, and many others.

Victor Olaotan has featured in other movies such as Towo Tomo, Lovestruck, and Three Wise Men

Car accident

Victor Olaotan was involved in a career-ending car accident in October 2016, when he was driving to a movie set. The ghastly accident occurred around Apple Junction, in Festac, Lagos.

The actor was unfortunately left with a brain injury.

Illness

Following the accident, due to the brain injury, the late actor, therefore, was left bedridden for five years, till his death.

Following the accident, the late actor’s wife came out to plead with Nigerians to help the family raise money to pay for his treatment. Billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola offered to take care of the bill which he paid to the hospital. A go fundme account was set up to solicit funds that fans, colleagues, and supporters donated to support his treatment.

Months later, the wife disclosed that the actor still needed funds as the hospital in Turkey required about $250,000 (about N91m) to continue with a second stage of the treatment. She said they didn’t know the extent of the treatment he was going to receive when the first bill came in so after it was sorted, they thought that was it but it turned out it was not.

The money they received from the go fund me and from other supports had all finished as after the first procedure, they kept him on daily treatment, which was regular physiotherapy, and also on drugs which they used the money received to pay for.

The bills kept piling up and his wife disclosed that she had been receiving threatening emails and calls from the hospital, asking her to come and offset the bills or they will be forced to take legal action.

The actor had to be flown back to Nigeria as the family could no longer raise the money to continue paying for his treatment.

On August 27th, 2021, the actor passed away, at age 69.