Kemal Sunal


Kemal Sunal was a Turkish actor and comedian. He first attracted attention playing a side character in the drama film Canım Kardeşim. Then, he rose to fame as a leading actor in iconic Turkish comedy films such as Köyden İndim Şehire, Mavi Boncuk, Hababam Sınıfı, Hababam Sınıfı Sınıfta Kaldı, Kapıcılar Kralı, Süt Kardeşler, Tosun Paşa, Çöpçüler Kralı, Hababam Sınıfı Tatilde, Şaban Oğlu Şaban, Kibar Feyzo and Zübük. His final acting role was in the drama film Propaganda.

Career

Kemal Sunal graduated from Vefa Lisesi. In his early ages, he started pursuing what was to become a long and successful acting career in minor roles in various theatres. For a brief period, he worked in the Kenterler Theatre and debuted in the play Zoraki Tabip. He was later transferred to the Devekuşu Kabare Theatre, where he performed his acting.
He was recognized as a real talent, and started receiving offers for movies with larger budgets and a more famous cast. His first bigger role was in the film "Tatlı Dillim" directed by Ertem Eğilmez. In a matter of years, Sunal co-starred alongside Halit Akçatepe, Şener Şen and Münir Özkul.
Perhaps the most famous of all his parts was when he played in Hababam Sınıfı and was known by the name of "Şaban", but most of his classmates just called him İnek Şaban. İnek Şaban was constantly bullied and humiliated by his friends, but this never kept him from thinking the unthinkable, like digging a tunnel to escape school grounds or smoking in the school attic. The character was so pure and so fixed in the memories of the Turkish people, it was never replaced by another actor in the recent re-shootings of Hababam Sınıfı, most probably as a sign of respect to Sunal.
His other notable characters include: Tosun Paşa; Süt Kardeş Şaban; Çöpçüler Kralı, who fell in love with a municipality officer's fiancée; Doktor Civanım, a former hospital janitor pretending to be a doctor upon his return to his home village; and finally "Orta Direk Şaban", a naive man trying to become an athlete to impress his crush.
The huge popularity of his movies stemmed not only from their unique humour but also their depiction of the many problems faced by the poor rural people in Turkey during the 1970s and 1980s. In almost all of his films, Kemal Sunal plays a poor man, trying to make a living.
Sunal's last film was Propaganda, which was directed by Sinan Çetin. Sunal, played a customs officer-in-charge on the Syria–Turkey border Being a serious drama, this film was a contrast to his other works. As the plot unfolded, Sunal's character fell into despair, trying to survive the dilemma between his duties as an officer of the law and his duties as a friend. In the public opinion, this film was not the best of his works. Another significant fact about this film is that it also included Ali Sunal, Kemal Sunal's son, cast as a junior customs officer.

Personal life

Sunal kept himself and his family away from the media and rarely appeared in public. His family originates from the village of Gökçe, in the Doğanyol District of Malatya Province. Despite that Doğanyol is highly populated by Kurds, neither Sunal nor his family ever claimed Kurdish ancestry. People who knew him have commented on how serious he was in his real life, in contrast to the funny characters he played in his movies. Whilst he was at the top of his career, he decided to finish university, which he had dropped out of in his early career. Despite his fame, he attended the university like a regular student and stated that "that was the way he liked it to be".
Sunal's dreams of higher-education were disrupted in 1980, during the period of military takeover. His attempts to earn a degree finally paid off in 1995, when he earned his bachelor's degree in Radio Television and Cinema Studies from Marmara University. He then decided to pursue a master's degree, which he earned in 1998, also from Marmara University. This incident was covered by the media with headlines like "İnek Şaban Master Yaptı" while his 'classmates' from Hababam Sinifi made comments like "Profesorluk Bekliyoruz". At his graduation ceremony, he made a speech joking that his path of first working and then attending university later in life was better as it allowed him to gain real life experience first.

Death

Kemal Sunal died on July 3, 2000, as a result of a sudden heart attack aboard a flight to Trabzon just before take-off. He was reported to be afraid of flying. His death caused mourning that swept the entire nation and dominated news coverage for many days. He was interred at the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery in Istanbul.
Kemal Sunal and his wife Gül Sunal had two children, Ali Sunal and Ezo Sunal.

Awards