Erol Günaydın

Erol Günaydın — Biography

Born into the Kiziroğlu family from the Black Sea coast, Erol Günaydın was born on 16 April 1933 in the Akçaabat district of Trabzon and moved with his family to the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul at the age of eight. While a boarding student at Galatasaray High School he passed the entrance exam for the Istanbul City Theatres and made his amateur stage debut, then turned professional in 1955 with Papaz Kaçtı, the opening production of Haldun Dormen's Pocket Theatre. He joined the Ankara State Theatre in 1956 and married Güneş Hanım, whom he met on tour, with whom he had three children.

He entered cinema in 1960 with Yeşil Kurbağalar and wrote the screenplay for the 1965 film Güzel Bir Gün İçin, which won him Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor at the 1967 Antalya Golden Orange festival. He wrote the musicals Yaygara and İstanbul Masalı, scored by Cemal Reşit Rey, co-founded the Gen-Ar Theatre with Tuncel Kurtiz, and directed the Akbank Children's Theatre. He became widely known for his portrayal of Nasreddin Hoca, his meddah performances, and his Turkish dub of Yogi Bear, and also voiced Bilbo Baggins in the Turkish version of The Lord of the Rings and Carl Fredricksen in Up. A long interview he gave journalist Emine Algan was published as the book İki Kalas Bir Heves in 2007.

Suffering from pneumonia, kidney failure and sepsis in his final months, Günaydın was admitted to intensive care in Bodrum in August 2012, flown to Istanbul in September, and, according to a hospital statement, died of heart failure on 15 October 2012; he was buried at Feriköy Cemetery.