[1] Considered one of the best villains in Sinhala cinema,[2] Karunaratne acted in more than 240 films across many genres primarily as main antagonist.
[3] Wilson Karu was born on 28 October 1942 in Colombo, Sri Lanka as the second child of the family with four siblings.
During young ages, he played football, cricket, gymnastics, wrestling, judo and karate.
[6] His remains were laid at Jayaratne parlour for public respect on 3 May 2022 and cremation took place at Kirulapone crematorium at 4 p.m on 4 May 2022.
A relative called Punya Bulathsinhala referred him to the director of the film Hadawath Naththo Subayar Makeem in 1974.
Karunaratne made his maiden cinematic appearance through the 1974 film Hadawath Naththo as a stuntman.
He continued to make several near-to-death moments during jumps, summersaults and scenes in moving trains and trucks in the films such as:[5] Dinesh Priyasad's Demodara Palama, Malani Fonseka's Sasara Chethana, Cyril Weerasinghe's Anuradha, Preethiraj Weeraratne's Pudumai Eth Aththai, Ranjith Siriwardena's Yudha Gini Meda etc.