Most answers, of course correctly, has mentioned the living legend of Telugu cinema Brahmanandam garu. To the best of my knowledge there is only one other actor - in fact actress - who had achieved this feat many years ago, and is believed to have acted in 1350 films in a career spanning over five decades.
“Aachi” Manorama with the Thespian Sivaji Ganesan in a still from the 1968 Tamil film “Thillana Mohanambal” - she was sometimes referred to as “Female Sivaji” in recognition of her acting prowess and versatility. She had acted with actors of five generations starting from Sivaji Ganesan and MGR to Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth to Ajith,Vikram and Suriya. She has acted along with all the iconic comedians of Tamil like K.A.Thangavelu, Chandra Babu, Nagesh, Thengai Srinivasan, Surulirajan, “Cho” Ramaswamy to Goundamani, Vadivelu and Vivekh. She has the distinction of having been associated with four chief ministers of Tamil Nadu - C.N.Annadurai, M.Karunanidhi, M.G.Ramachandran and Jayalaithaa and one chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh - N.T.Rama Rao Garu. Apart from doing comedic and character roles Manorama has also been a singer and sung nearly 300 songs in films.
Considering that the female actors have limited shelf life in the male dominated film industry, Manorama’s longevity and the legendary status she commanded were indeed incomparable.
Manorama (Tamil actress) - Wikipedia
She acted in small roles in a few Vairam Nataka Sabha dramas. One time she went to see a drama of S. S. Rajendran , who was residing at Pudukkotai , in Tamil Nadu , and P.A. Kumar introduced her to Rajendran. She showed her skill in dialogue delivery and was offered a job in the S.S.R. Nataka Mandram company and played in hundreds of stage productions all over the district: The dramas included Manimagudam , Thenpandiveeran and Pudhuvellam . She credits her work in Manimagudam as where she was first recognized as an actress. [ 9 ] She then took part in an unfinished film starring S. S. Rajendran and Devika . She migrated from dramas to the silver screen with the role of a heroine in the 1958 Tamil film Malayitta Mangai : Kannadasan was the one to give her the lead role there. [ 10 ] The first film in which she played as an heroine was Konjum Kumari . [ 11 ] From there moving onto comedy in the 60s. In this period she would be given equally challenging roles alongside the well-known comedian Nagesh in 50 films. When asked in an interview as to how she got into films, she quoted: "It's all because of Kannadasan. It was he who changed my life by casting me in the film Maalayitta Mangai in 1957. It was a comical role, and he trusted me so much and said that I will be able to pull it off. I was very doubtful about it, but he told me, "If you are going to act in films only as a heroine, people here will throw you out of the industry after three or four years, but doing such roles will take you places. And you have the talent, too, to reach higher peaks." That is when I got confidence and continued doing comedy roles." [ 8 ] The first time Manorama stood before the camera was for a Sinhalese film named Sukumali in 1957, in which she played a friend of the main hero. [ 12 ] Her dance master Suryakala recommended her to the director Masthaan to play the role. She has acted predominantly in Tamil films since 1958, but also acted in Telugu , Hindi , Malayalam and Kannada movies as well. Her on-screen pair with Tangavelu was appreciated in the film Vallvanakku Vallavan . Her on-screen pair with Nagesh was very popular in the 60s, then with Cho in the 1970s and 80s and later with Thengai Srinivasan , Vennira Aadai Moorthy, and Surali Rajan in the 70s and 80s. [ 13 ] She had done playback singing for 300 songs, mostly centered on herself, in Tamil films. The first song that she sang was in a film called Magale Un Samathu , composed by G. K. Venkatesh [ 14 ] and she got this opportunity due to the producer P.A. Kumar. She has sung a classical-based song with TM Sounderajan in the film Dharshinam (1970), where she was paired with Cho. Manorama would also perform with L.R. Eswari in a song named Thaatha thaatha pidi kudu . Her career's biggest hit songf was Vaa Vaathiyaare Uttaande composed by music director V. Kumar for the film '' Bommalattam ", which was centered around her and Cho. She also sang for M. S. Viswanathan and A. R. Rahman . Some of her best Tamil f