İhsan Yüce

İhsan Yüce — Biography

Born in Elazığ on 23 January 1929, Mehmet İhsan Yüce was the third of seven children in a Caucasian family that had migrated from Dagestan. He became a Turkish film and theatre actor, screenwriter, director and poet, and died in Istanbul on 15 May 1991. Some records give his year of birth as 1930, but the majority of sources agree on 1929.

After studying at İzmir Atatürk High School and the Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences, he worked for a time as an accountant before entering the stage in 1952 at İzmir's People's and Children's Theatre; he founded the short-lived Bizim Tiyatro, then in 1968 co-founded Ankara's Drama Theatre, where he staged Crime and Punishment and Limelight, and later worked at the Gen-Ar, Arena and Direklerarası stages.

His screen debut came with Altın Yumruk, and through his own production company, Aslıer Film, he wrote, directed and starred in Hayat Cehennemi; he won the Golden Orange twice, for best supporting actor in İşte Hayat and best actor in Derya Gülü. He appeared in 117 films in all, wrote the screenplays for 55 and directed 6; he also painted and sculpted and wrote largely unpublished poetry, his best-known line coming from Ekmek, Şarap, Sen ve Ben. He died of a heart attack at his home in Üsküdar on 15 May 1991 and was buried at Karacaahmet Cemetery; his life became the subject of a 2020 book and a 2024 documentary.