Aliye Rona

Aliye Rona — Biography

Born Aliye Dilligil in 1921 in the town of Dera, now inside Syria, Aliye Rona was the daughter of a railway operator from Trabzon and the sister of theatre figure Avni Dilligil and journalist Turhan Dilligil. After studying at a girls' vocational art school in Beyoğlu, she took up amateur acting at the Kadıköy people's house in the late 1930s and later performed at the Arena Theatre alongside Ulvi Uraz and her brother. She married fellow actor Zihni Rona, whom she met while working together at İzmir City Theatre. She moved into cinema in 1947 with Kerim'in Çilesi and, over a career spanning nearly five decades, appeared in more than two hundred productions while also doing voice work. She became known for playing stubborn, rights-seeking, tradition-bound peasant women and authoritative mother and grandmother figures, in films including Revenge of the Snakes, Cemo, Şabaniye and Berlin in Berlin. She won Best Supporting Actress at the Antalya Golden Orange festival in 1965, 1967 and 1968 for three different films, took the same award at Adana's Golden Boll festival in 1969, and received a Lifetime Achievement award there in 1994. In her final years she suffered paralysis on her right side, used a wheelchair, and lived in a nursing home in Pendik, whose conditions drew press coverage at the time. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1996 and was buried in the family plot at Karacaahmet Cemetery.