Neyyire Neyir

Neyyire Neyir — Biography

Neyyire Neyir is counted among the first Muslim women to act in Turkish cinema, although she spent most of her career on the theater stage. Born Münire Eyüp, she reached the screen by playing Kezban in Muhsin Ertuğrul's Ateşten Gömlek. She went on to perform on Istanbul stages, above all at the Darülbedayi, until her death, and at the same time wrote for a theater journal and ran its editorial desk.

For the film, adapted from a novel by Halide Edib Adıvar, a newspaper advertisement had been placed to find an actress for Kezban; the only applicant was Münire Eyüp, then a student at the American College for Girls. The name Neyyire Neyir, used on the poster, stayed with her as a stage name. In the same year she appeared in Ertuğrul's Kız Kulesinde Bir Facia and made her stage debut at the Darülbedayi in Othello. After a short spell in İzmir and her return to Istanbul in 1924, she worked in Ertuğrul's company; she later married him and accompanied him on a trip to Russia. In 1928 she returned to the stage with Hortlaklar, played Necmiye Sultan in the film Ankara Postası, and joined the company's tours of Cyprus and Egypt.

Her repertoire ranged across plays such as Macbeth, Hamlet, Suç ve Ceza and Kör. In the journal Darülbedayi she wrote on Russian literature and theater, and from 1941 she published the journal Perde ve Sahne together with her husband. She was taken to hospital with chest pains during a rehearsal in October 1942 and died of heart disease on 13 February 1943. A street in Istanbul's Bahçelievler district bears her name.