Erden Alkan

Erden Alkan — Biography

Born in Giresun in 1941, Erden Alkan built a career split between Turkey and Germany, whose citizenship he also holds. After finishing Vefa High School in Istanbul, he trained at the Max Reinhardt Theatre School in Vienna; in Germany he went beyond acting to found a theatre company and work as a playwright and director.

He entered cinema during Yeşilçam's busiest years, appearing in dozens of early-1970s films including Ölüm Emri, Battal Gazi Destanı and Gönülden Yaralılar. He later shifted the weight of his career to Germany, taking roles in an episode of Tatort, in Wolffs Revier, and in Evet, ich will!. In his personal life, he met a Swedish woman, Annika Björnson, in 1967 and was engaged to her for five years before the two separated; decades later they reconnected through social media and married.

Alkan returned to Turkish television in 2004 with Mavi Rüya, then played Çandarlı Halil Pasha in Fetih 1453 in 2012 before reaching a much wider audience as Candar Bey in Diriliş: Ertuğrul. He left that series in early 2017 after suffering a heart attack on set the previous year; his later work includes Beyaz Balina and Deliler: Fatih'in Fermanı.