Francis Duru, who died this week at 57 after a brief illness, worked in Nigerian film from 1989 until the last years of his life. His credits run from the home-video boom of the 1990s to Netflix. These are the films that best show the range of that career.
Rattlesnake (1995)
This is the role Duru will be remembered for. Amaka Igwe wrote and directed Rattlesnake, her first feature, and cast him as the young Ahanna Okolo, a boy whose father dies in suspicious circumstances and whose uncle, played by Nkem Owoh, marries his mother and takes the family’s property. Ahanna turns to crime to support his younger siblings and ends up living a double life.
Duru carried the first half of the story before Okechukwu Igwe took over as the older Ahanna. Released in parts, the film became one of the early landmarks of Nollywood’s action cinema. Its reputation was strong enough that Ramsey Nouah remade it in 2020 as Rattlesnake: The Ahanna Story, with Stan Nze in the role Duru had created 25 years earlier.
Blood Money (1997) and Blood Money 2 (1998)
Chico Ejiro’s occult thriller follows a bank manager who is drawn into a money cult and turns to kidnapping and murder. Duru played Jude alongside Kanayo O. Kanayo, Zack Orji, Francis Agu and Sam Dede. The film was a commercial hit for OJ Productions and was followed a year later by a sequel, with Duru back in the role. Money rituals became one of the defining themes of 1990s Nollywood, and Blood Money was among the films that made them popular.
Merry Men: The Real Yoruba Demons (2018)
In the cinema era, Duru moved into supporting roles in larger productions. In Toka Mcbaror’s action comedy about four wealthy men who take on a corrupt politician, he played Inspector Jack, a police officer, in a cast that included Ramsey Nouah, AY Makun, Jim Iyke, Richard Mofe-Damijo and Falz. The film earned more than ₦235 million at the Nigerian box office.
The Good Husband (2020)
Dickson Iroegbu’s marriage drama gave Duru the role of Theophilus, opposite Sam Dede and Monalisa Chinda. It was released in November 2020, as Nigerian cinemas reopened after the pandemic closures.
Mboputa (2020)
Mboputa brought Duru the biggest award of his later career. In December 2020 he won Best Actor in a Leading Role (Igbo) at the Best of Nollywood Awards for his performance, a reminder that he remained a leading man in Igbo-language film as well as English-language productions.
Blood Vessel (2023)
Moses Inwang’s Netflix drama follows six young people who flee a Niger Delta town ruined by oil pollution and stow away on a ship carrying stolen crude. Duru played Pere. In its first full week on the service, the film was the most-watched non-English film on Netflix, with 4.4 million views, giving him one of the widest audiences of his career.
The final years
Duru kept working steadily. In 2024 he appeared as Emenike in Ugly Bird and as Mr. Bassey in Abigail’s Memoir. In June 2026, answering fans who were worried about his health, he said in a video that he was well and getting stronger.
From a young Ahanna in 1995 to a Netflix drama almost three decades later, his career spanned nearly the whole history of Nollywood as an industry.