Belgin Doruk

Belgin Doruk — Biography

Belgin Doruk was one of the busiest and best-loved stars of Yeşilçam in the 1950s and 1960s. The Küçük Hanımefendi film series, in which she was paired with Ayhan Işık, gave her the nickname "Küçük Hanımefendi" (Little Lady), and films opposite Zeki Müren such as Son Beste and Kırık Plak are also closely tied to her name. She died of heart failure in Istanbul in 1995.

Her career began with a magazine contest: while in her last year of middle school she won the girls' prize in a competition run by Yıldız magazine and İstanbul Film, and made her screen debut in Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe'nin Definesi, directed by Faruk Kenç, a member of the jury. In 1953 she was named runner-up in a national beauty pageant and shared the lead with Ayhan Işık in Öldüren Şehir. In 1957 Lejyon Dönüşü and Çölde Bir İstanbul Kızı made her a nationally known name. Küçük Hanımefendi, directed by Nejat Saydam in 1961, broke box-office records and grew into a series, and Duvarların Ötesi (1964) was among the most talked-about films of its year. She was a fixture of melodramas and sentimental comedies.

In 1970 she won Best Actress at the Antalya Film Festival for Ayşecik Yuvanın Bekçileri. A changing film industry and health and personal problems in the early 1970s made work harder; after her last film, Gecekondu Rüzgarı (1972), she announced her retirement from cinema in 1975 and appeared in a television commercial in 1985. She married Faruk Kenç and later Özdemir Birsel, and had a daughter and a son.