Ranasinghe Premadasa was born on 23 June 1924 at Dias Place, Colombo 11, to the family of Richard Ranasinghe (Ranasinghe Mudalali) of Kosgoda and Battuwita Jayasinghe Arachchige Ensina Hamine of Batuwita, Horana. Premadasa was the oldest of five children, three sisters, and one brother. His father was engaged in the transport business in Colombo employing rickshaws.

At age fifteen, Premadasa stated the Sucharita Children’s Society, which later became the Sucharitha Movement, a volunteers organisation with the objectives of uplifting the economic, social and spiritual development of the low income people living in shanty areas of the capital. He was the full-time organizer of the community development project of the area in 1939. These youth who enrolled in his development movement refrained from taking liquor and avoided smoking and gambling. Premadasa too was a teetotaler.

Allying with A. E. Goonesinghe, the founder leader of the Ceylon Labour movement, Premadasa started his political career in 1946 joining the Ceylon Labour Party as a full time member and campaigned for Goonesinghe in the 1947 general election.

In 1950, he was elected to the Colombo Municipal Council as a member of San Sebastian’s Ward. Having realized limited future prospects in the Labour Party in the mid 1950s, he supported Sir John Kotelawala’s move to remove LSSP Mayor of Colombo, Dr N. M. Perera. In 1955, he succeeded T. Rudra as Deputy Mayor and joined the United National Party in 1956 following the successful removal of Dr N. M. Perera as Mayor of Colombo in February 1956.

From the United National Party, Premadasa contested the 1956 general election from the Ruwanwella electorate and lost to Dr N. M. Perera. Following his defeat, he joined J. R. Jayewardene working for the party reorganization under Dudley Senanayake and served as the secretary of the Religious Affairs Committee of the Buddhist Council appointed by the government to organize the 2500th Buddha Jayanthi celebrations. The following year he joined the protest march to Kandy on 3 October, which had been organized by J. R. Jayewardene. This march was disrupted at Imbulgoda by thugs led by S. D. Bandaranayake. He was elected the third Member of Parliament from Colombo Central in the March 1960 general election. The short lived Dudley Senanayake government fell in three months and in the July 1960 general election that followed he polled fourth in the three member constituency of Colombo Central. In 1961, he was elected Member for the Cinnamon Gardens Ward in the Colombo Municipal Council in an by election and served till 1965. During this time he worked to open pre-schools for poor families and iniciated vocational training centers in sewing and tailoring for the youth.

Premadasa married Hema Wickramatunge, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wickramatunge Arachchige Charles Appuhamy of Bandarawela on 23 June 1964. They had a son, Sajith, and a daughter, Dulanjali. A hard worker, Premadasa was known for raising early and following a strict routine. He lived and work from his private residence and office, Sucharitha even during his tenure as prime minister and president.

He successfully contested the Colombo Central electorate in the 1965 general election, he was appointed Chief Government Whip and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Local Government, M. Tiruchelvam. When Tiruchelvam resigned in 1968, after the Federal Party left Dudley Senanayake’s government, Premadasa was promoted as Minister of Local Government and became a member of Senanayake’s cabinet. During his tenure he instituted a bridges programme using pre-stressed concrete components, created the Maligawatta Housing Scheme and became known in the local governments in the island. Premadasa turned Radio Ceylon, the oldest radio station in South Asia, into a public corporation – the Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation on 5 January 1967.

In the following 1970 general election, he was elected first Member of Parliament for Colombo Central and sat in the opposition with J.R. Jayewardene, the Leader of the Opposition. Premadasa was appointed Chief Opposition Whip. Further, he was elected chairman of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth Inter- Parliamentary Association held in Australia. In the meantime, he was member of the Constituent Assembly which drafted the constitution of 1972. Premadasa called for reforms of the party, which Senanayake refused resulting in Premadasa resigning from the party working committee. He went on to form the Samastha Lanka Puravesi Peramuna, known generally as the Puravesi Peramuna or Citizens Front. Building up the Citizens Front, he was in open conflict with Senanayake who had recently healed a rift with Jayawardane. Amidst this conflict Dudley Senanayake died on 13 April 1973 following a heart attack and Senanayake loyalist found fault with Premadasa. Jayawardane who became party leader came to terms with Premadasa, who stopped the Citizens Front and return to fully support the United National Party driving up its membership at grassroot levels and becoming its deputy leader.

Premadasa was re-elected first Member of Parliament for Colombo Central in the general election in 1977 and became the Leader of the House and the Minister of Local Government, Housing and Construction.

When J.R. Jayewardene became the first Executive President of the country, he appointed Premadasa as the Prime Minister on 23 February 1978. Premadasa began to define the new role of the Prime Minister under an executive president. He took residence at Temple Trees, retained the use of the The Lodge for the prime minister and established a new prime minister’s office at Sirimathipaya. He began representing Sri Lanka internationally, having led the Sri Lankan delegation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1979, where he secured British funding for the construction of the Victoria Dam. He headed the Sri Lankan delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in 1980 where he addressed the general assembly.

Soon after being elected president, he dissolved parliament and called for fresh elections. In the 1989 parliamentary election in February the UNP gained 125 seats in parliament, forming a government with a majority in parliament. At the time he became president, the country faced both a civil war in the north and a communist insurgency in the south, both key issues Premadasa concentrated on, with particularly ruthless actions against the insurgents. The security forces brutally put down the revolt and killed many of its leaders.

His handling of the country’s civil war was less successful. In the north, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were facing off against the Indian Peace-Keeping Force the Indian presence on the island was unpopular, and Premadasa requested India to pull out its troops. In order to force the IPKF to leave the island, he authorized a clandestine operation to supply arms to LTTE to fight the Tamil National Army formed by the IPKF, a collusion that came to light in the report published by the Sri Lankan Presidential Commission to inquire into the 1992 assassination of Lieutenant General Denzil Kobbekaduwa. While the IPKF was recalled by New Delhi in 1990, the government’s war with the LTTE resumed, beginning Eelam War II, which ended in a stalemate five years later. The 1990 massacre of Sri Lankan Police officers, which occurred after the policemen were asked to surrender to the LTTE in Batticaloa at Premadasa’s request, was later established to have been performed with the same weapons he had supplied them.

In September 1991, Premadasa faced an impeachment in parliament led by his two formidable rivals in the UNP, Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake. He defeated it by adjourning Parliament and the Speaker Mohamed dismissed the impeachment stating a lack of signatures after several of the parliamentarians who supported it withdrew their support after facing threats. He then expelled Athulathmudali and Dissanayake from the party, who then joined to form the Democratic United National Front (DUNF).

In 1992, he changed the country’s name in English from Sri to Shri Lanka on the advice of soothsayers, who predicted it would improve the country’s fortunes. The spelling was restored after his assassination in 1993.

The site of the explosion was cleaned within hours before a proper investigation was conducted. The May Day parade continued even after the explosion for some time. An island-wide curfew was imposed hours after the assassination. Prime minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga was sworn in as the new acting-president at afternoon. The government did not announce the death of President Premadasa until 6 p.m. local time when state television Rupavahini broadcast a tape of BBC’s report of the incident. A period of national mourning was announced until the funeral. Police claimed that they recovered the severed head of a young man suspected to be the bomber, which found to have a cyanide suicide capsule, bearing LTTE tradecraft in his mouth. His state funeral took place at Independence Square, Colombo on 9 May 1993.

The climax of the 1993 Indian film Gentleman was rewritten by director S. Shankar based on the assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa after a request by film producer Kunjumon. The film was in post production stage when Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated and the film was released on 30 July 1993.