Kerim Afşar

Kerim Afşar — Biography

A pupil of Muhsin Ertuğrul in the theater department of the Ankara State Conservatory, Kerim Afşar worked in Turkish stage, film and television as an actor, director and voice artist; he was born in Istanbul on August 13, 1930, and died in Ankara on September 26, 2003. Afşar took the stage as D'Artagnan in "Cyrano de Bergerac" in 1951, and over a 45-year career appeared in roughly a hundred plays, also lending his voice to TRT's Radio Theater programs and to the reading of Atatürk's Nutuk broadcast after the coup of May 27, 1960.

In 1980 he was invited to Berlin by director Peter Stein and performed at the Schaubühne theater; back in Turkey, he continued his career with the Ankara Art Theater and the State Theaters, also directing several productions. On screen he appeared in films such as Çalıkuşu (1966), Battal Gazi Destanı (1971), Arkadaş (1974), and Mine (1982), and in television series including Kurt ve Kuzu, Bizim Aile, and Karate Can.

He won numerous arts awards over his career. His earlier wife was actress Esin Afşar; in his later years his wife was Leyla Afşar, together with whom the "Dil Derneği Kerim Afşar Award" was established in his name. He made his last stage appearance in January 2002, portraying his close friend Uğur Mumcu, and died of liver failure on September 26, 2003, the day Turkey marked its 71st Language Day.