Nebahat Çehre

Nebahat Çehre — Biography

Hilal Nebahat Çehre was born on 15 March 1944 in Samsun, the only daughter of a Laz mother and a Georgian-descended father; after her father's death the family moved to Istanbul when she was five, and she left secondary school to attend the Akşam Kız Sanat Okulu. Crowned Miss Turkey in 1960, she represented her country at the Miss World pageant in London and at Miss Universe in Miami in 1965, and entered film in 1961 with Yaban Gülüm. Between 1964 and 1968 she co-starred with Yılmaz Güney in thirteen films and married him in 1967; sources describe a stormy marriage, including an incident in which Güney's car struck her during an argument and broke her collarbone, and the couple divorced in 1968. She married national basketball player Yavuz Demir from 1976 to 1979. From 1970 to 1991, with support from Zeki Müren, she pursued a singing career and became known for the Sezen Aksu-composed Büklüm Büklüm. Returning to acting in 2000 with Derman Bey and Kardelen, she went on to play Firdevs Yöreoğlu in Aşk-ı Memnu and Hafsa Sultan in Muhteşem Yüzyıl, and her career has been honored with lifetime-achievement awards from the Golden Orange, Golden Boll and Istanbul film festivals. Now 82, she appears in the 2026 series Tuzlu Kahve.