Aydemir Akbaş

Aydemir Akbaş — Biography

Aydemir Akbaş (born 25 February 1936 in Istanbul) was a Turkish actor, screenwriter and director who also worked as a journalist and sports columnist. Sources disagree on his death: Wikidata, the English and Azerbaijani Wikipedia articles and Beyazperde give 16 August 2024, while the Turkish Wikipedia entry and SinemaTürk give 17 August; the weight of evidence favours 16 August. SinemaTürk alone dates his birth to 3 March.

Beyazperde traces his debut to Atıf Yılmaz's Keşanlı Ali Destanı in 1964, the start of a career spanning some fifty-eight years. He became widely known for the erotic films that kept Yeşilçam's cinemas open during its lean years, without ever leaving drama and comedy behind. He appeared repeatedly alongside Yılmaz Güney, including as Abuzer in Law of the Border (1967), and played the sidekick in İbrahim Tatlıses vehicles. Filmography counts vary sharply: Beyazperde lists 31 titles, SinemaTürk more than 120.

Later work included Avrupalı (2007), The Shadowless and Sacred Demijohn 2, but he is remembered above all as Sabri in the Kolpaçino comedies with Şafak Sezer. His wife, the actress Beyhan Benek Akbaş, died in July 2026, two years after him.