Tarik Akan

Tarık Akan was a Turkish film actor and producer, who started his activity in the 1970s. He was born as Tarık Tahsin Üregül in Istanbul on 13 October 1949. He was the third child of the family after a daughter and a son. His family was constantly moving around Turkey due to his father's occupation in the military. He attended Yıldız Technical University to study mechanical engineering, graduated later from the College of Journalist. Before he started his acting career, he worked as a lifeguard at beaches and at a boat renting place in Bakırköy. He completed his military service in Denizli in 1979. He entered a movie actor contest of the magazine Ses ("Voice"), and ended up runner up. He studied acting under the eye of famous Turkish film director Ertem Eğilmez. He made his film debut in 1970 at the age of 21 in Vefasız, and adopted the stage name "Tarık Akan". Between 1970 and 1975, in the heyday of Yeşilçam, he acted in 12 films a year in average. He appeared with Emel Sayın in Mavi Boncuk, Hülya Koçyiğit in Sev Kardeşim, Hale Soygazi in Gece Kuşu Zehra, and entered into the "list of unforgettables" with Hababam Sınıfı. At first, most of his roles were in romantic comedies. Later in his career, he has taken on more political and dramatic roles. The first film of this genre was Nehir, in which he shared the role with Cüneyt Arkın. Political films like Maden, Sürü, Yol and Kanal followed. He acted in a total of 110 films, and won numerous awards from various festivals including Cannes and Berlin. He was jailed for two-and-half months with cell confinement following the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. A right-wing politics daily defamed him with a false news in the headline for a speech he allegedly addressed in Germany in early 1981, leading to a long court case demanding for 12 years imprisonment. In 1986, he married Yasemin Erkut. He became father of a son, Barış Zeki, the same year. Two years later, twins, Yaşar Özgür, a son, and Özlem, a daughter, were born. The couple divorced in 1989. His son Barış Zeki began an acting career in 2009 with the film Deli Deli Olma, in which he played with his father and portrayed the young actor Tarık Akan. Akan contracted lung cancer, and was in treatment for over one year. In the early hours of 16 September 2016, he died at the age of 66 in the intensive care station of a private hospital in Istanbul. He was buried in Zuhuratbaba Cemetery in Bakırköy. He was also a political activist and a supporter of human rights and environmental causes. He was a member of the Green Party of Turkey and the founder of the Green Art Association. He participated in various campaigns and protests against war, nuclear power, animal cruelty and deforestation. He was also a vocal critic of the Turkish government and its policies on the Kurdish issue, the Armenian genocide and the Gezi Park protests. He received several awards and honors for his social and artistic contributions, such as the Berlin International Film Festival Peace Film Award, the Turkish Journalists Association Press Freedom Award, the Turkish Cinema Writers Association Honorary Award and the Turkish Film Critics Association Lifetime Achievement Award.