Öztürk Serengil

Öztürk Serengil — Biography

Öztürk Serengil was born on 2 May 1930 in the Hopa district of Artvin, the son of a schoolteacher; he left secondary school after the second year, moved to Istanbul in 1949, and worked for a time as an illustrator in the Babıali publishing district. He made his stage debut in 1953 with the play Oğlum Edvard, joined the Oda Tiyatrosu in 1958 and then the Istanbul City Theatre, and entered cinema with Üçüncü Kat Cinayeti after his military service. Cast as a villain in his early films, he grew into a fixture of slang-driven comedies and appeared in roughly three hundred films, best remembered for his "Adanalı Tayfur" character. In 1961 he opened Abidik Gubidik, said to be Turkey's second-largest nightclub, but quickly lost the fortune it earned; a later venue he opened in Libya collapsed when Gaddafi banned tourism, and he was arrested there on espionage charges before returning home with little left of his wealth. From 1966 he also worked as a stage showman, hosted the talent show Gülünüz Güldürünüz, and coined slang terms such as "yeşşe" and "kelaj" that entered everyday Turkish; he published a memoir, Yeşilçam'ı Benden Sorun, in 1985. Married four times, he is best remembered as the father of presenter Seren Serengil. He died in Istanbul on 11 January 1999 following a stroke.