Derya Arbaş

Derya Arbaş — Biography

Derya Arbaş (born Derya Zerrin Berti; 17 June 1968, Santa Monica – 22 October 2003, Los Angeles) was a Turkish-American actress. Her mother was the former Miss Turkey Zerrin Arbaş and her father the Native American actor Dehl Berti; SinemaTürk also traces her family to the major Turkish painter Avni Arbaş. Wikidata records that she studied at the California Institute of the Arts.

She came to prominence in Turkish cinema in the mid-1980s, beginning with Kuyucaklı Yusuf (1985) and continuing through a run of 1986 films including Dilan, Beyaz Bisiklet, Alev Gibi, Bir Günlük Aşk and Bitmeyen Sevda. She played Serap in The Night, Angel and Our Children. Later she worked mainly in television, on Çılgın Badiler, Şemsi Paşa Pasajı, Günah and Cinlerle Periler.

She died in the United States at 35 and, as Habertürk reported, was buried in a Native American ceremony reflecting her father's heritage. Wikidata gives the date of death as 21 October, but the Turkish, English and German Wikipedias and SinemaTürk all agree on 22 October 2003.