Can Kolukısa

Can Kolukısa — Biography

Can Kolukısa was born on May 14, 1934, in Eskişehir and grew up in Istanbul's Aksaray district. After graduating from Işık Lisesi, he enrolled in the Economics Faculty of Istanbul University in 1953 and joined its Youth Theatre; the group traveled to Germany's Erlangen University Theatre Festival twice, winning first place on one occasion. In 1964 he married the writer Pınar Kür (they divorced in 1969, and their son Emrah was born in 1968) and that same year began training at the Sorbonne Theatre Institute in Paris; back in Istanbul, he performed with companies such as Cep Tiyatrosu, Oda Tiyatrosu and Küçük Sahne alongside figures like Mücap Ofluoğlu and Haldun Dormen.

He reached wide audiences with the films Kapıcılar Kralı (1976) and Züğürt Ağa (1985), the latter earning him a best supporting actor award, and he won best actor honors in 1996 for Düş, Gerçek, Bir de Sinema. He served as artistic director of the Gaziantep City Theatre from 1991 to 1992. In the decades that followed he appeared in series such as Asmalı Konak, Hanımın Çiftliği and Muhteşem Yüzyıl, received the Yıldırım Önal Memorial Award at the 2019 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, and was introduced to younger viewers as the grandfather in the 2022 series Balkan Ninnisi. Can Kolukısa died in Istanbul on August 1, 2026, at age 92, and was buried at Nakkaştepe Cemetery.