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Cuneyt Arkın (1937-2022)
Photo:
Cenk Ertekin / mauritius images / Alamy
Cüneyt Arkın, icon of classical Turkish cinema, has died at the age of 84.
"A very tragic loss," it said in a statement circulated on his Twitter account.
Arkın is considered one of Turkey's most famous actors and has starred in more than 300 films, state-run Anadolu News Agency wrote on Tuesday.
Deniz Yücel described the actor as one of »one of the greats of Turkish film and the clear number one in the action genre, specializing in melodramatic action films«.
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Scene from »DKAO – Turks in Space«
Photo: ddp images
From the point of view of film lovers, the films with him also have entertainment value because of the sometimes funny fight scenes - for example in the film "Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam" (The Man Who Saves the World), for which Cüneyt Arkın also wrote the screenplay - here on YouTube.
In it, scenes of the spaceship pilot (Arkın) are countercut with scenes copied from »Star Wars«.
In 2006, a sequel as »DKAO - Turks in Space«, in which Arkın also played, was released in German cinemas.
Arkın is also a popular film hero among many people in the Turkish community in Germany, whose adventures took place at family evenings together.
The writer Feridun Zaimoglu once recalled that his father was particularly fond of »those Hauweg films with Cüneyt Arkın
in the leading role« enthused.
In 2007, Arkın starred in the successful teenage comedy »Cilgin dersane«, which also ran in Germany under the title »Coole Schule«.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (here is his tweet), Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu (here is his tweet), other politicians and celebrities shared condolences on social media for his death.
According to Anadolu, Arkın died in Istanbul.
feb/dpa
