Haluk Bilginer

Haluk Bilginer
Bilginer in 2022
Born	(1954-06-05) 5 June 1954 İzmir, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Alma mater	London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1978–present
Spouse(s)	Zuhal Olcay ​ ​ (m. 1992; div. 2004)​ Aşkın Nur Yengi ​ ​ (m. 2006; div. 2012)​
Children	1

Nihat Haluk Bilginer (Turkish pronunciation: [haˈluk bilɟiˈneɾ]; born 5 June 1954) is a Turkish actor. For his role in Şahsiyet (2018), Bilginer won the Best Actor award at the 47th International Emmy Awards. His film Kış Uykusu won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In addition to his acting career in Turkey, he has also worked in the United Kingdom and remains best known for his role as Mehmet Osman in the television soap opera EastEnders during the 1980s. He has also starred in Hollywood movies as a character actor. He often plays villains and unsympathetic characters.

Life and career

Bilginer was born in İzmir, Turkey. He graduated from the Ankara State Conservatory in 1977 before going to England where he graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He landed his first role in the long running UK soap opera EastEnders.

EastEnders (1985–1989)

Bilginer made his first appearance in EastEnders as Mehmet Osman on-screen in June 1985, four months after the show originally aired. His arrival coincides with a cot death storyline of Sue and Ali's baby, Hassan. Mehmet appears as a recurring character from 1985 to 1987, setting up a cab firm named Ozcabs from inside Ali's café; however, he becomes a regular in 1988, when both he and his wife Guizin (Ishia Bennison) are made partners in Ali's café, which is renamed Café Osman.

Described as "the Terrible Turk", Haluk Bilginer was one of the more popular male cast members on EastEnders during the 1980s, and he reportedly received sackfuls of fan mail, "despite playing a villain and a womanising snake". Hilary Kingsley has said that what made the character so popular was Bilginer's Omar Sharif-style good looks and charm. Following the departure of Holland and Smith, Mehmet was eventually written out of the serial in May 1989, in a storyline that signified the disbandment of the Osman family. On-screen, Mehmet returns to his native Cyprus after a fight with Guizin regarding her suspicions about Mehmet's fabricated affair with Sue. The Osman family were among many characters to leave the serial that year. Writer Colin Brake has commented, "the pace of comings and going was fast and furious during 1989, as the programme tried to find a new direction." Bilginer went into musical theatre after leaving EastEnders starring in Ken Hill's popular musical adaptation of the Guy de Maupassant novel The Wicked World of Bel-Ami at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, working with Fiona Hendley, Toni Palmer, Peter Straker and Colin Atkins.

After EastEnders

Haluk Bilginer in 2005

During the course of the show, he came to Turkey to star in the 1987 mini series Gecenin Öteki Yüzü based from novel and mini history series Ateşten Günler based from novel, where he met his eventual first wife Zuhal Olcay, famous Turkish actress and singer. After dividing his time in London and Istanbul for six years, he left the show to stay in Turkey permanently and married Olcay in 1992.

He guest starred in an episode of Young Indiana Jones as İsmet İnönü, and went on to star in the Yavuz Özkan film "İki Kadın". He then starred in various movies including İstanbul Kanatlarımın Altında and the famous Usta Beni Öldürsene. After critical acclaim for these roles, he earned his first award as a supporting actor in Masumiyet. He played in series "Gülşen Abi". After deciding he wants to pursue career on stage, he founded "Tiyatro Stüdyosu" (Theatre Studio) with his wife Zuhal Olcay and Ahmet Levendoğlu in 1990. After starring in various plays for six years, he had to return to screen in 1996 because of a fire that destroyed the theater. He and his wife starred in television and movies to raise money to found another theater.

Eyvah Babam and Tatlı Hayat

During this era, he starred in Eyvah Kızım Büyüdü, starting his second era in television. After years of work, he and his wife managed to start a second theater, called "Oyun Atölyesi" (Play Workshop).

In 2001, His most famous role however came after he started his second theater. He landed a role in Tatlı Hayat, a remake of The Jeffersons. He played the role of İhsan Yıldırım, an angry and foul-mouthed, yet lovable dry cleaner. He was accompanied by legendary actress Türkan Şoray who has starred in the most feature films for a female actress worldwide with 222 films to her name in the Guinness Book of Records, Asuman Dabak playing the witty cleaner, Neco playing the Greek neighbor (The enmity between Greeks and Turks were put instead of the Black-White one in the original) and Çolpan İlhan playing Neco's wife. He and the show's breakthrough character İrfan (played by Celal Kadri Kınoğlu) are regarded as the best characters in Turkish TV history. He divorced Zuhal Olcay in 2004 and began a relationship with Aşkın Nur Yengi, a famous Turkish singer. They married in 2006 and had a daughter.

After Tatlı Hayat, he starred in films Neredesin Firuze, "Hırsız Var", "Hacivat Karagöz Neden Öldürüldü?", "7 Kocalı Hürmüz" and "Güneşin Oğlu". His most recent role in film Polis however, is his most critically acclaimed role after Tatlı Hayat. His portrayal of the troubled police legend Musa Rami has gained critical acclaim from both critics and viewers, who thought the movie was too experimental. Bilginer, however, has said that he will work in all of Onur Ünlü's (screenwriter and director of Polis) movies, even as an extra if required.

Bilginer played the role of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in an İş Bank commercial, which first aired on 10 November 2007 during the 69th commemorations of Atatürk's death.

He played in rom-com series "Sevgili Dünürüm" alongside Nevra Serezli, Sumru Yavrucuk, Engin Altan Düzyatan, Rojda Demirer, Didem Balçın, Cengiz Bozkurt.

Bilginer co-starred in the 2009 American thriller The International as Ahmet Sunay, a Turkish high-tech missile guidance system dealer. He was accompanied by Clive Owen and Naomi Watts in this movie.

After Ezel

He joined in second season of hit series Ezel. With Ezel's co-star Cansu Dere, he starred in the series Şahsiyet, playing a retired court clerk who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The later role won him an International Emmy Award for Best Actor. He worked again with same director & screenwriter duo Onur Saylak & Hakan Günday in Netflix series "Uysallar".

Bilginer played an actor who acts woman in series Hayatımın Rolü adaptation of Mrs. Doubtfire. He plays Aydın in Kış Uykusu, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. With Ali Atay, he works including series "Masum", "Şeref Bey" for many times. He appeared in Netflix series "Sıcak Kafa" based from sci-fi novel.

In 2016, he appeared in "Ben-Hur". In 2018, Bilginer played Dr. Ranbir Sartain, the new psychiatrist of Michael Myers, in the slasher sequel Halloween. In 2020, he played the lead villain Dr Greif in the first season of the hit Prime Video series Alex Rider, based on the bestselling novels by Anthony Horowitz. In 2023, Bilginer starred as Barbara Nadel's fictional Istanbul detective Çetin İkmen in the Paramount+ series The Turkish Detective.

Personal life

In 1987, Bilginer traveled to İstanbul to film the TV series Gecenin Öteki Yüzü (The Other Side of the Night), where he met actress/singer Zuhal Olcay; they married in 1992 and divorced in 2004. He married singer Aşkın Nur Yengi in 2006 and has a daughter from this marriage; they divorced in 2012.

International Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	class="unsortable"
1986	Half Moon Street	First Arab	British-American production
1987	Ishtar	Guerrilla leader	American production
	Lionheart	Merchant	Hungarian-American production
1997	Sawdust Tales	Aaron
1999	Harem Suare
2001	Buffalo Soldiers	The Turk	American production
2003	Hittites	King III. Hattuþili	Türkiye production docudrama film
2004	She's Gone	Inspector Yilmaz	British production
2009	The Watercolor		Türkiye production
2009	The International	Ahmet Sunay	American-German production
2011	W.E.	Mohamed Al-Fayed	British-American production
2012	The Reluctant Fundamentalist	Nazmi Kemal	American-Indian-Qatari production
2014	Rosewater	Baba Akbar	American production
2016	Ben-Hur	Simonides	American production
2017	Forget About Nick	Nick	German production
2017	The Ottoman Lieutenant	Halil Bey	Turkish-American production
2017	Trendy	Hasan
2017	Shelter	Ahmet
2018	Halloween	Dr. Ranbir Sartain	American production
2024	Maria	Aristotle Onassis	American-Italian-German production

Series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	The Glory Boys	Arab Driver	British production
1985–89	EastEnders	Mehmet Osman	British production
1985	The Murder of a Moderate Man	Sasan
1985	Bergerac	Ahmet	Episode: "Avenge O Lord", British production
1991	Memories of Midnight	Dino Mattusi	TV mini series
1992	Jackanory	Storyteller
1993	The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles	Colonel Ismet Bey	Episode "Palestine, October 1917", American production
1999	The Bill	Guest Star/Olly	Episode "The Three Sergeants", British production
2004	Spooks	Emre Celenk	Episode "Persephone", British production
2016	New Blood	John Malik	2 episodes, British production
2020	Alex Rider	Dr Greif	Main role, British production
2024	The Veil	Mr Demir
2024	The Turkish Detective	Çetin İkmen	Leading role, Turkish-British co-production

Turkish Filmography

Web Series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	Masum	Cevdet	Leading role
2018	Şahsiyet	Agâh Beyoglu	Winner – Best Performance by an Actor at the 47th International Emmy Awards
2021	Şeref Bey	Şeref	Leading role
2022	Uysallar	Berhudar	Leading role
2022	Sıcak Kafa	Haluk	Leading role

TV Series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Gecenin Öteki Yüzü	Ali	mini series
1987	Ateşten Günler	Ahmet Rıfkı	mini series
1991	Safiye'dir Kızın Adı
1992	Borsa	Reha Çalık
1993	Son Söz Sevginin	Tahsin
1994-1996	Gülşen Abi	Abidin Özbidin
1997	Medeni Haller
1998-2000	Eyvah Babam	Sedat
2000-2001	Eyvah Kızım Büyüdü		Sequel series
2001	Cesur Kuşku
2001	Karanlıkta Koşanlar	Ali	mini series
2001	Dadı	Himself/Guest	a remake of The Nanny
2001-2004	Tatlı Hayat	Ihsan Yıldırım	a remake of The Jeffersons
2002	Ti Show	Robot Memduh
2004–2005	Sayın Bakanım	Samim Bayraktar	a remake of British TV series Yes Minister
2005	Yine de Aşığım	Ali
2007-2008	Sevgili Dünürüm	Ahmet
2008	Nerede Kalmıştık	Ateş
2009	Sıkı Dostlar	Hikmet	a remake of The Odd Couple
2010	Cuma'ya Kalsa	Cuma
2010	Üvey İkizler
2010–2011	Ezel	Kenan Birkan
2011	İstanbul'un Altınları	Reşat Altın
2012	Acayip Hikayeler	Sinan
2012	Hayatımın Rolü	Müşfik/Nanny	a remake of Mrs. Doubtfire
2014	Kaçak	Ustura Faysal
2017	Kara Yazı	Oğuz
2022	Baba	Emin Saruhanlı	Leading role

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Ölürayak	Ömer
1991	Kara Sevdalı Bulut	Atila
1992	İki Kadın	Metin
1996	İstanbul Kanatlarımın Altında	Evliya Celebi
1996	80.Adım	Savcı
1997	Nihavend Mucize	Erol
1997	Masumiyet	Bekir	Best Supporting Actor – won Golden Orange at International Antalya Film Festival Won Jean Carment Award at Angers European First Film Festival
1999	Güle Güle
2000	Fasulye	The imaginary old man
2001	Filler ve Çimenler
2004	Neredesin Firuze	Hayri
2005	Hırsız Var
2006	Kısık Ateşte 15 Dakika	Muhtar
2006	Polis	Musa Rami
2006	Hacivat Karagöz Neden Öldürüldü?
2008	Devrim Arabaları
2008	Güneşin Oğlu
2009	7 Kocalı Hürmüz	Cebrail
2010	New York'ta Beş Minare	Hacı
2012	Çanakkale Çocukları	Kasım
2014	Kış Uykusu	Aydın	Best Actor – won FIPRESCI Prize at Palm Springs International Film Festival the film won the Palme d'Or and the FIPRESCI Prize
2017	Geceyarısı, Türkiye Zamanı	The President
2017	Kırık Kalpler Bankası	Yusuf Yağmur
2017	Cingöz Recai: Bir Efsanenin Dönüşü	Mehmet Rıza
2019	Nuh Tepesi	İbrahim
2020	9 Kere Leyla	Adem
2021	Azizler	Erbil

Awards

• 47th International Emmy Awards, (2019)

External links

• Haluk Bilginer at IMDb
• Biography of Haluk Bilginer - Biyografi.info
• Filmography of Haluk Bilginer - Sinematurk.com