Rutkay Aziz

Rutkay Aziz — Biography

Rutkay Aziz was born Ünal Aziz Rutkay in Istanbul on 16 May 1947 and has worked as a Turkish actor, theatre director and arts administrator. His interest in theatre began in high school, where he met Tarık Akan, and he trained at the LCC Theatre School under Muhsin Ertuğrul. His first stage experience came as Jean-Paul Marat in Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade. From 1971 he spent many years at Ankara Sanat Tiyatrosu as an actor, director and artistic director, making his directing debut in 1972 with İsmet Küntay's play 403. Kilometre. He entered cinema with Zülfü Livaneli's Yer Demir Gök Bakır (1987) and went on to appear in films such as Sis, Ada and Piano Piano Bacaksız. He portrayed Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Ziya Öztan's Kurtuluş series (1994) and its follow-up film Cumhuriyet (1998). On television he featured in popular series including Bizimkiler, Hayat Bilgisi, Avrupa Yakası and Yalan Dünya. Aziz serves as president of the Nazım Hikmet Culture and Art Foundation. His daughter, Doğa Rutkay, is also an actress.