Derya Arbaş

Derya Arbaş — Biography

Derya Arbaş, born Derya Zerrin Berti, made a brief but striking entry into Turkish cinema in the mid-1980s as a Turkish-American actress. She was the daughter of the former Miss Turkey and actress Zerrin Arbaş and the Native American actor Dehl Berti, and the granddaughter of the painter Avni Arbaş. She died in Los Angeles in 2003, aged 35.

As a child she played her mother's younger self in Battal Gazi'nin Oğlu (1974). After years in the United States she came to Turkey while still in her teens for Kuyucaklı Yusuf (1985) and soon appeared in Alev Gibi, Bir Günlük Aşk, Beyaz Bisiklet, Dilan and Bitmeyen Sevda. She then stepped away from cinema and studied painting and sculpture in California. In 1992 she won the Turkish round of the casting contest for the planned sequel to Gone with the Wind and reached the top three in the US final; when the project was cancelled it was made as a miniseries. She played Serap in Atıf Yılmaz's Gece, Melek ve Bizim Çocuklar (1994).

From the mid-1990s she moved between the two countries, appearing in the series Çılgın Badiler (1996) and Günah (2001), alongside Cinlerle Periler and the American film Hang Your Dog in the Wind. She had come to Turkey for her grandfather's funeral and was planning to settle there when she died of a heart attack after returning to Los Angeles; she was buried following Native American custom. Some sources give 21 October as the date of death.