Billur Kalkavan

Billur Kalkavan — Biography

Billur Kalkavan (2 November 1962 – 15 October 2022) was a Turkish actress and television presenter. Born in the Beylerbeyi district of Istanbul, she was the daughter of shipowner Nazım Kalkavan and Nuyan Kalkavan, a descendant of the Ottoman sultan Abdulmejid I. She began secondary school in the United States, returned to Turkey to attend Kadıköy Maarif College, and later finished her secondary education in America, also taking psychology courses at the University of California.

She first appeared on screen at the age of seven, playing a kidnapped child in Ayrı Dünyalar (1969), and later starred in Kartal Tibet's Sultan (1978). From the 1990s she acted in films such as Mavi Sürgün, Ölüm Peşimizde, Kraliçe Fabrika'da and Çarşı Pazar, and in television series including Kaynanalar, Tatlı Kaçıklar and Ihlamurlar Altında. She took to the stage in 1996 with Tiyatro Çisenti's Açık Evlilik and remained active in theatre. Known for her outspoken public persona, she hosted a late-night talk show on HTV in 2012 and founded the Billur TV YouTube channel in 2014. She died of lung cancer in Istanbul in 2022 and was buried at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery.