Osman Alyanak

Osman Alyanak — Biography

Osman Alyanak was born in Istanbul in 1911. Between 1932 and 1936 he played right-back for Galatasaray, later serving on the club's board of trustees, and according to a book on fifty years of Republican-era Turkish theatre, he was one of three people to receive the state's first-ever theatre scholarship. After his football career he entered the arts through operetta, and following brief spells with several theatre companies he moved into cinema in 1950 with İstanbul Geceleri, going on to appear in more than 150 productions through 1990, mostly in warm, fatherly supporting roles, while also working as a voice actor. An advertisement earned him the nickname Oralet Osman, while Yeşilçam knew him as Tayyare Osman. He played the imam Hüseyin Hodja in Yılmaz Güney's Umut, Hasan Derviş Ağa in Kızılırmak-Karakoyun, and the old man in the park in Anayurt Oteli, and won Best Supporting Actor at the 4th Golden Boll (Altın Koza) Film Festival in 1972 for his role in Irmak. Alyanak died in Istanbul on 30 September 1991 and was buried at Edirnekapı Martyrs' Cemetery.