Turkan Soray

Turkan Soray (born 28 June 1945, Istanbul) is a Turkish film actress.

Turkan Soray

Biography

Turkan Soray was born to a government official father, Halit Şoray and her mother, Meliha Şoray whom was a housewife. She also has one younger sibling, a sister called Nazan, who is also an actress in her own right, but is nowhere near as famous as she is. After the birth of her little sister, Türkan's parents divorced and custody of the children were given to the mother. Türkan Şoray went on to study at the 'Fatih Kız Lisesi' and studied in the middle/intermediate classes but she would not carry on with her education to study a university. Whilst living in 'Karagümrük' in rented accommodation with her sister and her mother, she would not know that their landlords would be her link to stardom. The landlords were the parents of one of Turkish cinema's first actresses Emel Yıldız and it is with her that Türkan first stepped foot on a film set. After this Türkan was getting ever closer to a contract with one of Turkey's top film studios, Yesilcam.

Career

She made her film debut in 1960 at just 15 years old with the film Aşk Rüzgarı. After the movie's success Türkan started to be advised by a 'Yeşilçam' screenwriter, film director and producer Türker İnanoğlu. It is he, whom would in the same year, sack Türkan's close friend Emel Yıldız in order to give his new prodigey the leading role in the studio's upcoming movie Köyde Bir Kız Sevdim.

For the next five years, Şoray appeared in over 60 movies. After her 1965 triumph, she was named one of Turkey's four leading actresses. But this year was also the year where her career was in turmoil. Starring in stereotyped roles, in films with the same plot and story lines, drew people away from her and slowed her work down, this led to her several arguments with film producers and as a result was outed by most of them. Türkan Şoray knew, in order to survive, she would have to step in fast and she did. She introduced what is known as the 'Şoray Rules' and would only work if the studio and the directors obeyed these rules. Some of these rules are known to be:

Turkan Soray will have to be given the script no later than a month before shooting was to start, and if she dissaproved with it changes would be made or she would not accept the role.

The films that Türkan Şoray will act in could only be filmed in Istanbul, as simply Türkan Şoray would not and could not leave the city.

Turkan Soray would not work on Sundays.

The 'Soray Rules' were seen by some to be that of a Hollywood divas demands, but it did pay off as she was given the respect she wanted as well as the movie roles came flying in.

For the remainder of the 1960s she starred in a further 48 films, making her one of Turkey's most successful female artists of Turkish film history because she had acted in over 100 movies in the time space of ten years. But sadly this would be short lived because the market changed during the 1970s and 1980s. People were no longer into the traditional boy meets girl, girl is poor boy is rich scenarios but the public doesn't want a change in style, no but like America the trend of the day was Porn.

Throughout the 1970s she acted in over fifty movies

1980s 14

1990s 7 movies and 3 teleseries

2000-present 2 movies and 3 teleseries

She won her first of many prizes when she received the best actress prize at the 'Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival' for the film Acı Hayat.

In the end of 1960s, she was named among the four greatest actresses of the Turkish cinema. She was highly applaused by her movie choices and ability to act in several and different roles. She stared in "Vesikalı Yarim" for which she was awarded as the best actress for the second time in Antalya Film Festival. She went on working with respectable directors in the later years. One of them was Atıf Yılmaz,with whom she would work in dramas and commedies. In the 1970s she also acted in movies with a more realistic view. She also directed 4 movies in those years. Her mostly applaused movies in 1970s included "Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım", "Hazal", "Sultan", "Dönüş", "Baraj", "Asiye Nasıl Kurtulur", etc. In those movies she was mostly accompanied with famous Turkish actor Kadir İnanır.

Awards

In 1980s she began portraying women with problems of female identity; "Mine", "Rumuz Goncagül", "On Kadın", etc. She won her third best actress award from Antalya Film Festival in 1987 with the movie "Hayallerim, Aşkım ve Sen"; a movie that Türkan Şoray portraits three different women and each one of them actually is a shadow of Türkan Şoray.

Some of her awards are:

Antalya Film Festival Best Actress Award

1964-Acı Hayat

1968-Vesikalı Yarim

1987-Hayallerim, Aşkım ve Sen

1994-Bir Aşk Uğruna
Moscow Film Festival Grand Jury Prize

1973-Dönüş (her first movie as a director)
Tashkent Film Festival Best Actress Award

1978-Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım
Bastia Film Festival Best Actress Award

1992-Soğuktu ve Yağmur Çiseliyordu
Rome Film Festival 1999 Honorary Award