I was in Zonguldak Catalagzi and went to the company film house to see Ömer Lütfi Akad's 1958 film "Zümrüt" (Emerald)[1] and mesmerized by the lead. She was my first encounter with my Academy of Fine Arts Alumna Çolpan İlhan.Mavi Boncuk |
Çolpan İlhan (August 8, 1936, İzmir - July 25, 2014, Istanbul) was a Turkish cinema and theatre actress. She had been awarded the title of 'State artist of Turkey". She had acted in a total of more than 300 films and theatre plays.She was the sister of famous poet and writer Attila İlhan, and the devoted wife of Sadri Alışık, one of the most famous actors of the cinema of Turkey, with whom she married in 1959 and they stayed married until the latter's death in 1995. They had one child, Kerem Alışık, who is also an actor.
Çolpan İlhan received her secondary education at Istanbul Kandilli High School for Girls. Later she studied theatre at İstanbul Municipal Drama School and art at İstanbul State Academy for Fine Arts. With her fellow students, she later formed an amateur theatre group called Akademi Tiyatrosu. In 1957, she acted in her first film called Kamelyalı Kadın (Lady Camellia). The same year, she acted in her first professional play Sevgili Gölge (Dear Shadow) with Münir Özkul. She worked mostly in theaters for some years after this with private theater companies called Küçük Sahne Theater and Oda Theater. From the 1960s, she has worked almost entirely in cinema.
In 1998, she was given the title of "State Artist of Turkey" by the Turkish Ministry of Culture.
[1] Director: Lutfi Akad Writers: Ihsan Ipekçi (novel), Sadik Sendil Cast: Çolpan Ilhan, Fikret Hakan, Sadri Alisik