Feridun Karakaya

Feridun Karakaya — Biography

Feridun Karakaya was born in Istanbul on 15 May 1928 and lost his lawyer father when he was just ten. He enrolled at Kabataş Boys High School but left without graduating, entering the theatre at the urging of Necdet Mahfi Ayral and joining Muhsin Ertuğrul's company. He married Merih Hanım in 1959, joined the Istanbul City Theatres in 1961, and made his screen debut at the invitation of director Lütfi Ö. Akad.

A small role as a shoeshine boy in Osman Seden's 1957 film Berduş, starring Zeki Müren, turned the character "Cilalı İbo" into an overnight sensation. Karakaya said he owed the character to Müren and Seden, and went on to play the same figure across dozens of films through the 1960s and 1970s; the Turkish press occasionally likened him to comedians such as Danny Kaye and Fernandel. Over his career he appeared in close to fifty films and two television series.

He received France's Légion d'Honneur for his performances in Molière's plays, credited with helping introduce French culture to Turkish audiences. He retired from the City Theatres on reaching the age limit in 1995, suffered a heart attack in 2001 that put him in intensive care for two months, and died of a second heart attack on 24 April 2004 at the age of 75; he was buried at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery. His son, Cem Karakaya, has continued in acting, and in 2007 the Beykoz municipality named a theatre in his honor.