Fikret Hakan

Fikret Hakan — Biography

Given the name Bumin Gaffar Çıtanak at birth in Balıkesir on 23 April 1934, the actor took the stage name Fikret Hakan by court order once he entered cinema. Son of a literature teacher and translator father and a head-nurse mother, he grew up moving between Anatolian towns, worked as a young journalist and published short-story collections before turning to acting. He debuted on stage at the Ses Theatre from 1950 and moved into film in 1953 with Köprüaltı Çocukları, then rose over the following decade to become one of Yeşilçam's most sought-after leading men, winning Best Actor at the Golden Orange Film Festival more than once for his work in Keşanlı Ali Destanı, Ölüm Tarlası and Hasret. In 1970 he co-starred with Hollywood actors Tony Curtis and Charles Bronson while playing Colonel Ahmet Elçi in director Peter Collinson's Paralı Askerler, then largely stepped away from film for a stretch to run boats in Marmaris. He returned to acting in the 1980s and regained wide popularity in 1990 playing Muzaffer Bey on TRT's Hanımın Çiftliği. Named a State Artist in 1998, he lost that title after a 2002 court ruling. Married four times, he had a daughter born outside marriage, and he died at 83 on 11 July 2017 while being treated for lung cancer.