Ali Şen

Ali Şen — Biography

Born in Adana in 1918, Ali Şen earned his keep for a while as a carpenter and factory foreman before his first taste of the stage, also in Adana, at the People's House there. Between 1944 and 1946 he toured Anatolia with the itinerant Sadi Tek theatre company, and after moving to Istanbul he joined Vahi Öz's troupe at the Ses Theatre. His screen career opened in 1954 with Ahretten Gelen Adam, and across the years that followed he stepped in front of cameras roughly 300 times, remembered for playing supporting characters who tipped either warm-hearted or wicked; the two that stuck longest were the village headman he played in Yılanların Öcü (1962) and Hacı Fettah in Vurun Kahpeye (1964) -- the former even carried his name to audiences in Bulgaria. Other titles on his résumé include Zübük (1981), Banker Bilo (1980), Süt Kardeşler (1976), Tokatçı (1983), Yedi Bela Hüsnü (1982), Canikom (1979) and Erkekçe (1983). Actor Şener Şen was his son. A brain hemorrhage took his life in Istanbul on 15 December 1989; following funeral prayers at Teşvikiye Mosque, he was laid to rest at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery.