Hülya Koçyiğit

Hülya Koçyiğit — Biography

Born in Yenikapı, Istanbul on 12 December 1947 to parents who were just 16 and 22, Hülya Koçyiğit was one of nine students chosen from 310 candidates for the ballet department of the Ankara State Conservatory at age seven, later moving to its theatre department on the recommendation of Muhsin Ertuğrul. She grew fond of cinema while visiting the film sets of her sister Nilüfer, and was discovered after placing runner-up in a beauty contest run by Ses magazine in 1963; her 1964 debut, Dry Summer, won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, the first such honor ever given to a Turkish film. Working with directors including Lütfü Akad, Atıf Yılmaz, Metin Erksan and Halit Refiğ, she went on to appear in more than 200 films and series; Derman became the first Turkish film shown on five continents, and Kurbağalar the first sold to foreign television. She won the Antalya Golden Orange five times and the Adana Golden Boll once, took international prizes at the Nantes and Amiens festivals, and received the title of State Artist in 1991 and the Presidential Grand Award for Culture and Arts in 2014. Around the same period she helped found the Cinema Actors Association and led it for four years. Alongside Türkan Şoray, Fatma Girik and Filiz Akın, she is counted among Yeşilçam's legendary quartet of leading women. In 1968 she married Selim Soydan, then a Fenerbahçe footballer; their daughter Gülşah also became an actress.