Engin Cezzar

Engin Cezzar — Biography

Engin Cezzar was a stage actor and director known as the youngest actor ever to play Hamlet, and whose name is bound up with Keşanlı Ali in Keşanlı Ali Destanı. For years he acted and directed in the theatre he founded with his wife Gülriz Sururi, and the encouragement award that carries both their names still goes to theatre artists today.

After Robert College he studied at Yale and the Actors Studio in the United States and took classes with Lee Strasberg; in 1958 he played the lead in the world premiere of Kafka's The Warden of the Tomb at the Piscator Workshop. At Muhsin Ertuğrul's invitation he returned to Turkey in 1959 and made his name in Hamlet at the Istanbul City Theatres, where the production ran for 169 performances. He worked at Dormen Theatre, Devekuşu Cabaret and the State Theatres. From 1962 he acted in his own company's productions such as Keşanlı Ali Destanı, Othello and Teneke, and the last piece he directed was Ayşe Opereti. On television he appeared in Bay Alkolü Takdimimdir, directed and produced Kaldırım Serçesi, winning the Sedat Simavi Radio-Television Award, and in film he appeared in Abdülhamit Düşerken and Sağır Oda.

He received the Muhsin Ertuğrul Special Award at the 2003 Afife Theatre Awards and an honorary award at the 2008 Istanbul Theatre Festival. He was a close friend of the writer James Baldwin. He died in January 2017 and, in line with his will, was buried without a ceremony.