Tamer Balcı

Tamer Balcı — Biography

Tamer Balcı, who was born Toma Valcis, is remembered in Turkey both as an athlete and as a figure of Yeşilçam cinema. Of Greek descent and raised on Heybeliada, he was regarded as the country's best hammer thrower from 1940 to 1955, and in film he played Tarzan in Tarzan İstanbul'da (1952), which gave him the nickname "Tarzan Toma". He died on 10 April 1993 and was buried at the Heybeliada Greek Orthodox Cemetery, where his gravestone carries his original Greek birth name.

As a boy he played football and swam, then took up the javelin; after schooling on the island he moved to mainland Istanbul and joined the Galatasaray Sports Club. After army service in 1940 he concentrated on the hammer. Between 1940 and 1951 he broke the national record 11 times and won the national title 15 times; his 52.13 metres in October 1951 was his personal best and the national record of the time. He was entered for Turkey in the hammer at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics but did not start at either Games.

He began acting in 1951 and appeared in about 24 films until 1976. His first small part was in 5 Fingers; he was cast as Tarzan in Tarzan İstanbul'da for his height and physique. Nasreddin Hoca ve Timurlenk (1954), Kanlarıyla Ödediler (1955) and Babacan (1975) followed, and in 1957 he was the stunt double for Errol Flynn in Istanbul. His last roles came in 1976 in Sahte Kabadayı, with Kemal Sunal, and Hınç, with Cüneyt Arkın, and he played the villain in both.