İlyas Salman

İlyas Salman — Biography

İlyas Salman is a Turkish film actor, director and screenwriter born on 14 January 1949 in the village of Asar in the Arguvan district of Malatya province. He left his studies at the Ankara State Conservatory unfinished and began his stage career at the Istanbul Municipal City Theatre, later performing with the Ankara Birlik Theatre. From the 1970s onward he became widely known for playing naive, humble village characters, a screen persona that led many to assume he was of Kurdish background; in 2007 he stated in an essay, and later in a book, that he identifies as a Turkmen Alevi. His best-known films include Kibar Feyzo, Banker Bilo, Çiçek Abbas, Şekerpare and Sarı Mercedes, staples of the Yeşilçam era that brought him wide popularity. In 2012 he shared a best-actor prize, given at Adana's Golden Boll International Film Festival, with Engin Günaydın for his performance in Night of Silence. Over a career spanning more than six decades he has also worked behind the camera as a director and writer.