Salih Kalyon

Salih Kalyon — Biography

Although born in Ağrı, Salih Kalyon's family came from the village of Koldere in Trabzon's Çaykara district; he grew up in Sakarya and did not continue his studies past middle school. At eighteen, in 1964, he moved to Istanbul, and it was with the Ankara Art Theatre that he turned professional, in the play "Ayak Bacak Fabrikası," going on to appear there in works such as "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," "Ward 72" and "Mother," and spending a brief spell with the Dostlar Theatre as well.

In 1976 he founded the Ankara Children's Theatre, which he ran for twenty years, writing, directing and acting in plays for young audiences; after a two-year break he returned to the stage in 1999 with "Sen Hiç Ateşböceği Gördün mü?," and around the same period performed with Yılmaz Erdoğan's BKM ensemble and appeared on a variety show co-hosted by actor Tolga Çevik. Widely known for playing "tak tak Sedat" in Bizimkiler from 1989 to 2002, he later portrayed Yavuz Çoban in the series Çukur between 2015 and 2019.

Beyond Vizontele, the Eyvah Eyvah series and Şevkat Yerimdar, Kalyon kept working through the 2020s in films such as Şahane Hayaller, Randıman, Vatikan'ın Şifresi: Bir Temel Macerası and Başkan, returning to the screen in 2025 with Temel: Sümela'nın Şifresi Yeniden. His forty-seven-year marriage to İnci Kalyon ended with her death in 2018.