Lale Mansur

Lale Mansur — Biography

Lale Yurdatapan Mansur was born in 1956 in the Erenköy district of Istanbul, the youngest of four children and only daughter of retired general Danyal Yurdatapan and Suzan Hanım; songwriter Şanar Yurdatapan is her brother. She began ballet training at eight at the Istanbul State Conservatory's ballet department, graduated in 1976 to become principal ballerina at the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, dancing in Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Carmen and Hürrem Sultan, and in 1980 provided backing vocals and dance for Turkey's Eurovision entry "Petrol," written by her brother and sung by Ajda Pekkan. She gave up dance when her husband, conductor Cem Mansur, was posted to England; she had earlier been married to musician Attila Özdemiroğlu. Her acting breakthrough came in 1992 with Atıf Yılmaz's Düş Gezginleri, which won her the Golden Orange Award for Best Actress, and she went on to win best-actress honors at the Ankara Film Festival for Karşılaşma and at the 2002 Sadri Alışık Awards for O da Beni Seviyor. Beyond films and series such as Amerikalı, Nihavend Mucize, Mutluluk, Kavak Yelleri and Başka Dilde Aşk, she moved into theatre from 2000 and co-founded the company Açık Tiyatro with Kubilay Tunçer in 2002. Known since the 1990s as an advocate for freedom of expression and human rights, she served in 2013 on the government's Wise Persons Committee formed during the Kurdish peace process.