Muzaffer Tema

Muzaffer Tema — Biography

Muzaffer Tema was born on 15 June 1919 in Istanbul. He trained in flute, violin and piano at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory and worked as a musician at the Ankara State Conservatory and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra. He entered cinema with Çığlık in 1949, and in 1951 was voted best actor in a Yıldız magazine readers' poll, becoming one of Turkish cinema's first romantic leading men.

In 1956 he went to the United States to try his luck in Hollywood, appearing in A Certain Smile (1958) and Twelve to the Moon (1960) to become the first Turkish actor in a Hollywood production; during this period he had a brief romance with Zsa Zsa Gabor. He returned home in 1959 due to his father's illness and, into the late 1970s, appeared in films including Kanun Namına, Hıçkırık, Özleyiş, Canım Sana Feda, Kilink İstanbul'da and Vazife Uğruna; he also produced four films and wrote and directed Vahşi Kedi (1961). Married more than once, Tema also served for a time as president of the Turkish-American Association in Dallas. He died at his home in Çeşme, İzmir Province, on 4 October 2011, at the age of 92, and was buried there.