Özkan Uğur

Özkan Uğur — Biography

Özkan Uğur, born Raif Özkan Uğur on 17 October 1953 in Istanbul, was the fifth child of a family whose father worked on the city's ferries, and he took up the mandolin as a schoolboy. He turned professional as a bassist in 1970 with the Şerif Yüzbaşıoğlu Orchestra, then played in Kaygısızlar, in Barış Manço's Anatolian rock band Kurtalan Ekspres, in Edip Akbayram's Dostlar Orkestrası and in Ersen ve Dadaşlar. In 1976 he joined Mazhar Alanson and Fuat Güner in İpucu Beşlisi, the partnership that became MFÖ in the early 1980s; with the band he represented Turkey at Eurovision twice, in 1985 and 1988.

He began acting in 1983 alongside Güner in Ferhan Şensoy's stage plays, then made his film debut in 1988 with Arkadaşım Şeytan. His later credits include Eşkıya, Komser Şekspir, G.O.R.A, A.R.O.G, Yahşi Batı, Pek Yakında and Arif V 216, plus the series Cennet Mahallesi and Poyraz Karayel. He married Aysun Aslan in 1989 and the couple had a son, Alişan. Diagnosed with lymphoma in 2013, he beat the disease a second time in 2020 but was diagnosed with cancer again in 2022; he died in Istanbul on 8 July 2023 at the age of 69 and was buried at Karacaahmet Cemetery.