Zeki Sezer

Zeki Sezer — Biography

More than four hundred Yeşilçam productions featured Zeki Sezer, a Turkish character actor usually seen in supporting roles. His film career, begun in the 1960s, ran as far as Papatya ile Karabiber (2002).

His way into cinema began with a magazine contest: in 1960 he sent a photograph to a competition run by Ses magazine, placed nowhere, but received offers from producers for various roles. His first small part was in Hüsnü Cantürk's Kurşun Yağmuru. Before that he had finished Edirne Boys' High School, worked as a warehouse clerk at the Şişli branch of the Istanbul transport authority İETT, and after military service served as a customs guard officer in Izmir from 1951 to 1953. Seen in the 1960s in films such as Affedilmeyen and Küçük Sevgilim, he continued through the 1970s with Zagor, Mahkûm, Acı Hayat, Kin, Hamama Giren Terler, Şafakta Buluşalım and Kanun Gücü; in the 1980s he appeared in films such as Gerzek Şaban, Tokatçı and Tarzan Rıfkı, and on television in the series Kurtdereli Mehmet Pehlivan and Ayrı Dünyalar.

His roles include a lawyer in İtham Ediyorum (1972) and a neighbourhood resident in Gerzek Şaban. Alongside cinema he was active in associations and trade unions at various times from the 1960s. He died of a heart attack on 5 June 2007 at his home in Zeytinburnu, Istanbul.