Hakkı Kıvanç

Hakkı Kıvanç — Biography

Hakkı Kıvanç was one of the busiest supporting actors of Yeşilçam for many years. Born Hakkı Güvenç, he worked on screen under the name Kıvanç and, over a career of about half a century, played more than five hundred roles, from mafia henchmen and policemen to coffeehouse keepers. He seldom took the lead, yet he became one of the dependable faces in the crowded casts of Turkish popular cinema.

After primary school he worked for a time as a tailor and entered cinema in the mid-1950s as an extra. His first film is given in some accounts as Kızımla Beraber Ağladık (1955) and in others as Beni Şafakta Vurdular (1957). In the 1960s he held steady places in the casts of films such as Altın Kollu Adam, Vesikalı Yarim and Kilink Soy ve Öldür. During the 1970s, when output peaked, he appeared in Kızgın Güneş, Küçük Sevgilim, Acı Hayat, Belalı Tatil, Şafakta Buluşalım and Tövbekar, and he also acted in the photo-romances that were then in fashion. He kept making films in the 1980s, among them Yedi Bela Hüsnü, Tokatçı and Kelepçe, and also turned to television, with roles in series such as Bizim Sokak, Sultan and Arka Sokaklar.

Kıvanç died in Istanbul on 30 January 2015 at the age of 83 and was buried at Kasımpaşa Kulaksız Cemetery. He is remembered as a character actor who worked steadily, mostly out of the spotlight.