Orhan Aksoy

Orhan Aksoy — Biography

Orhan Aksoy was born on 10 January 1930 in the Mustafakemalpaşa district of Bursa. After leaving school and completing military service, he spent three years from 1948 as a projectionist at two cinemas in Beyoğlu before joining İpek Film Studio as an editor in 1952, going on to write screenplays and assist director Hulki Saner. He moved into directing in 1963 with the comedy Şıpsevdi, starring Ayhan Işık and Ajda Pekkan.

Grouped together with Nevzat Pesen, Hulki Saner, Nejat Saydam and Osman Fahir Seden as part of a well-known circle of Yeşilçam directors, Aksoy became known chiefly for romantic melodrama, winning the Antalya Golden Orange best-film award for Kınalı Yapıncak (1970) and Hayat mı Bu? (1973). He directed more than ninety films and wrote over fifty screenplays across his career, and was the first director to cast singer Orhan Gencebay on screen; family comedies such as Aile Şerefi and Neşeli Günler, both starring Münir Özkul and Adile Naşit, drew audiences back to cinemas. He later moved toward television following his 1994 feature Yumuşak Ten.

He received an honorary award at the Golden Orange festival in 2000 and a cinema honor prize at the Sadri Alışık Awards in 2003, and died in Istanbul on 22 January 2008 after two weeks in intensive care.