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İsmail Hakkı Dümbüllü

Actor · 1897 – 1973

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Birth date1897
BirthplaceIstanbul
DiedNovember 5, 1973
Place of deathIstanbul
ProfessionActor

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Filmography / Projects

İsmail Hakkı Dümbüllü — Biography

İsmail Hakkı Dümbüllü is remembered as the last great representative of the ortaoyunu and tulûat traditions, the improvised comic theatre of Ottoman and Turkish stages. He carried that craft onto radio and the screen, which brought an old performance form to far wider audiences; in cinema he shone as a "folk comedian" and became most closely identified with the character of Nasreddin Hoca. The kavuk (turban) and fes he held remain emblems of Turkish theatre, still handed on from one generation to the next.

He began as an amateur on Karagöz Hüseyin's stage, then worked with Kel Hasan Efendi from 1917 to 1926 and learned tulûat in the old master-and-apprentice manner. The nickname "Dümbüllü" came from a gazel he added to a popular canto. In 1928 he founded the Hilal Theatre with Tevfik İnce in Direklerarası, and after 1933 they toured Anatolia together. When Naşid Efendi died in 1943 he became the leading figure keeping the tradition alive. From 1946 he appeared in close to fifty films, among them Harman Sonu, Keloğlan, Dümbüllü Macera Peşinde, İncili Çavuş and Nasreddin Hoca.

On 17 April 1968 he surprised Münir Özkul by giving him the kavuk and fes; the symbols later passed to Ferhan Şensoy, Rasim Öztekin and Şevket Çoruh. He died in Istanbul on 5 November 1973 after a traffic accident.

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