Ayhan Ià Âñk (born Ayhan Ià Âñyan; 5 May 1929 â 16 June 1979) was one of the pioneers of Turkish cinema and actors in Turkey, and among the most famous Turkish leading actors in the 1950s and 1960s.
Ayhan Ià Âñk was born Ayhan Ià Âñyan on 5 May 1929 in the Konak district of ðzmir. He was the youngest of six children. He lost his father when he was just six years old. In his posthumously published memoirs, Ià Âñk described his father as follows: "The most significant thing I remember about him is the way he smelled. I loved his hugging me before I went to bed. Once he took me fishing and carried me on his back on our way home since I was exhausted. That is all I can remember about him. I have always tried to force myself to remember more of him; unfortunately I couldn't."
He attended school in ðzmir and Istanbul, where they moved after Ià Âñk's elder brother attended university. He liked going to school. He once noted that his teachers in high school included such significant writers of Turkish literature as Mahir ðz, Salah Birsel and Rñfat Ilgaz. He was a sociable boy and made many friends in Istanbul. Some of his friends from school became important individuals as well.
After high school, Ayhan Ià Âñk and his cinema partner Sadri Alñà Âñk attended the painting department of the State Fine Arts Academy. He was a good painter and he joined a group of young painters who called themselves "The Ten," since they were then fellow painters. Their goal was to create a synthesis of Eastern and Western values in the medium of painting while one of their secondary intentions was to make close contact with the art of the common man, a goal he would achieve later as an actor.
Ià Âñk took first place in the contest, and his film career began. He first played the leading role in a historical film called "Yavuz Sultan Selim ve Yeniçeri Hasan" (Selim I and Janissary Hasan) directed by Orhan Murat Arñburnu. After that, Ià Âñk met ÃÂmer Lütfi Akad and the two made a film series called "ðngiliz Kemal" (English Kemal), which was an action thriller.
In 1952, Akad directed a very significant film called "Kanun Namñna" (In the Name of the Law), in which Ià Âñk played the leading role mutually with Gülistan Güzey, the femme fatale of Turkish cinema in the 1950s. The film was an extraordinary drama about ordinary people, which brought the film great success. People loved the film, but they loved the young leading actor, Ayhan Ià Âñk, more.
Film after film, year after year, Ià Âñk's fame grew. People wanted to see him. Osman Seden, his producer at that time, says that Ià Âñk began working in the films produced by Seden for TL 1,000 in the early 1950s, while he would be paid TL 100,000 in the early 1960s.
However, Ayhan Ià Âñk was not satisfied with his lot and visited many countries including Italy and Iran in order to find new possibilities and contacts to market Turkish films. Though paid at the highest level in Turkey, Ià Âñk's average fee for a hit film was less than one-10th of the fee paid to a leading actor in the U.S.
The film Bitter Life, directed by Metin Erksan, was a second triumph for Ià Âñk. This was again a dramatic and bloody love story, which would become a trademark for Ià Âñk's movies.
Star-cinema loves actor-actress pairings. Though Ià Âñk worked with many popular actresses of his time, his films with Belgin Doruk are among the most highly regarded in his career, with their chemistry most notable to the audience. The "Küçükhanñm" (Mademoiselle) film series was the outcome of this pairing and all were box-office hits. The pair made 11 films in a row.
Akad and some film critics said that Ià Âñk's best role was in the "Küçükhanñm" series, which were romantic comedy films.
Ià Âñk's films with Türkan à Âoray provided a different kind of pairing. The two worked together in "Acñ Hayat," 1962 and "Otobüs Yolcularñ" (Bus Passengers), 1961. Neither had a happy ending and both were realistic. "Otobüs Yolcularñ" was a political thriller while "Bitter Life" was a social drama.
Ià Âñk died in 1979 at the age of 50 from cerebral hemorrhage that comes from sunstroke during a sunbath on the terrace of his house, which shocked his family, friends and fans. He was known for his disciplined and calm living free from any scandals. He lived a kingly life as much as the social and economic conditions of the filmmaking business allowed him to, and died as "The Crownless King" (TR: Tacsiz Kral) as the press used to call him.