Kadir İnanır

Kadir İnanır — Biography

Kadir İnanır (born 15 April 1949 in Fatsa, Ordu; died 26 June 2026 in Istanbul) was a Turkish film and television actor, director and screenwriter. Born in Fatsa on the Black Sea coast as the youngest child of a large family, he became one of the best-known leading men of the last great generation of Yeşilçam.

He completed his primary and secondary schooling in Fatsa, showing his interest in acting early by taking part in school performances. He continued his education in Istanbul at Haydarpaşa High School and then studied at Istanbul University's Faculty of Journalism and Public Relations. He entered the cinema at the end of the 1960s and quickly came to the fore as a leading man, becoming known through films such as Kara Gözlüm (1970) and Kerem ile Aslı (1971).

The 1970s were his most productive period. Alongside productions such as Baldız (1975) and Cevriyem (1978), the role of İlyas that he played in Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım (1977) became the turning point of his career and one of the most remembered characters in Turkish cinema. The many films he made together with Türkan Şoray formed one of the best-known screen partnerships of the era.

In the 1980s he turned towards films with social themes. Ah Güzel İstanbul (1981), Bir Yudum Sevgi (1984), Yılanların Öcü (1985), 72. Koğuş (1987) and Karılar Koğuşu (1989), together with Tatar Ramazan (1990), are among the standout works of this period. Besides acting he also worked as a director and screenwriter.

In the 2000s he went on working in both cinema and television; he acted in the films Komser Şekspir (2001) and Gönderilmemiş Mektuplar (2003) and appeared in television series such as Kardelen and İzmir Çetesi. Elveda Katya (2012) and Kapı (2019) are among his late cinema works.

Over his career he received the Golden Orange Life Achievement Award and a Golden Butterfly Award; in 2023 the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival presented him, together with Türkan Şoray, with its "Face of Our Cinema" award marking the hundredth year of the Republic. In his private life he was in a relationship with Jülide Kural. He died on 26 June 2026 in Istanbul, at the age of 77.