Güngör Bayrak

Güngör Bayrak — Biography

Güngör Bayrak, born Şerife Bayrak on February 27, 1954, in Konya, grew up as an adopted child before her biological father appeared and took her into his custody when she was thirteen. After attending a teacher-training school in Konya, she studied for three years at a nursing school affiliated with Hacettepe University, but decided the profession did not suit her and turned to theatre, taking small parts at the Devekuşu Kabare stage. After leaving theatre she worked briefly as a model, photo model and airport ground hostess before moving into film acting.

She appeared in numerous films from the 1970s onward and won the Film Critics' best actress award for her role in Düşman, scripted by Yılmaz Güney; she went on to appear in Hasip ile Nasip (1976) and Supermen (1979), the television series Gümüş (2005), and the 2016 film My Name is Feridun. Alongside acting she also performed as a singer, releasing a single called Telefonumu Bekle, and made headlines in the mid-1980s for a public clash with the mayor of İzmir over a revealing outfit she wore at the İzmir Fair.

In 1987 she married Houari Berichi, an Algerian-born Sir she met on a trip to France, a marriage that earned her the nickname Leydi (Lady); she lived in Paris for about a decade, releasing a second album, Leydi Şerife, during that time. She returned to Turkey in 1996, was admitted to Marmara University's French-teaching program, graduated in 2000, and divorced in 2006. She remarried in 2012 and again in 2018, and a further wedding was reported in 2023.