Ayhan Işık

Ayhan Işık — Biography

Born Ayhan Işıyan, the youngest of six children in a family that had migrated from Salonika, he came into the world on 5 May 1929 in the Konak district of İzmir and lost his father at age six. While studying painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts he joined a circle of young painters known as "The Ten" and briefly worked as an illustrator in Istanbul's Bab-ı Ali district. Winning a magazine's talent contest in 1951 redirected him toward film; his debut was Yavuz Sultan Selim ve Yeniçeri Hasan, but real fame arrived with director Ömer Lütfi Akad's Kanun Namına. He quickly became one of Turkish cinema's most popular leading men, earning the nickname "Taçsız Kral" (the Uncrowned King), and built a wide-ranging filmography across drama, political thriller, romance and comedy, including the Küçük Hanım series opposite Belgin Doruk and roles alongside Türkan Şoray. A 1959 attempt to break into Hollywood did not lead anywhere lasting. From 1975 he also worked as a producer, director and screenwriter, and kept up his interests in painting and music. He died in Istanbul on 16 June 1979, at 50, from a cerebral hemorrhage brought on by sunstroke while sunbathing on his terrace.