KUALA LUMPUR: Thai actor Winai Kraibutr passed away on March 20 due to treatment complications at a hospital in Bangkok.
The actor died as a result of a blood infection that caused him to have a seizure on March 17, after which his heart stopped three days later, according to a recent news report.
Kraibutr, who made his breakthrough through a role in the 1999 horror film, 'Nang Nak', was said to have been suffering from a disease of the skin for the past five years.
He was suffering from a rare autoimmune disease, known as bullous pemphigoid, which causes multiple dark lesions to form on his skin.
Due to the complications of the disease, the actor had to give up on acting and focused primarily on his business ventures, which included a fertiliser business.
The actor won the Best Supporting Actor award at the 2016 Golden Television Awards show in Thailand.
'Nang Nak' was a major hit locally and outside of Thailand, and was reported to have earned him the moniker of '100 million hero' from the huge earnings he had after playing the role of Mak in the film.
He then went on to act in another box-office hit, 'Bang Rajan.'
Kraibutr was born in Ko Lanta, Krabi on June 16, 1969, to an impoverished family and had struggled financially when growing up.
However, in later years, he attended Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University and graduated with a bachelor's degree, and later a master's.
He started as a model and later appeared in various Thai music videos before he moved on to become a TV actor, and then graduated to the big screen.
