Özcan Tekgül

Özcan Tekgül — Biography

Özcan Tekgül was a belly dancer and actress who, from the mid-1950s into the 1980s, was among the best-known faces of both the nightclub stage and Yeşilçam. She made her name with a choreography called "Ateş Dansı" ("Dance of Fire"), and the "Certificate of Honor" she received in 1980 caused a controversy that was remembered for years.

Born in Çubuklu, Tekgül did not continue school after middle school; in 1954 she placed in a newspaper's "Beach Beauty" contest and began dancing professionally on the offers that followed. In 1955 she appeared at the Karaca and Ses theaters. That same year, on a film set she visited with her mother, director Muharrem Gürses noticed her, and she shared the lead with Muhterem Nur in Faruk Kenç's Kaybolan Gençlik. Until the early 1970s she acted in about thirty films, among them Papatya, Sokak Kızı, Çadır Gülü, Yedi Adım Sonra and Dişi Hedef, playing opposite stars such as Fikret Hakan, Ayhan Işık, Fatma Girik and Ajda Pekkan. In 1956 she was tried over a charge of indecent photography and was acquitted. From 1962 she danced in Egypt, Lebanon and the Far East.

The honor certificate that the Ministry of Culture gave in 1980 to artists with 25 years in their profession led to resignations at the ministry and a parliamentary question from the National Salvation Party; the phrase "don't wriggle like Özcan Tekgül" long served as an accusation among politicians. She retired in 1986, lived quietly in Antalya, and died on 2 July 2011 in a traffic accident on the Antalya-Serik road. Her birth year is given as 1939 in some sources.