John Colton

Tunç Okan was born on August 18, 1942, in Istanbul. His real name is Tunç Külen. He studied dentistry at Istanbul University and practiced as a dentist. He began his career in cinema as an actor. He lived abroad for a period of time. His first film as a director, "Otobüs" (The Bus), was banned in Turkey for a long time, but won awards at many international film festivals. The film, in which he shared the lead role with Tuncel Kurtiz, could only be seen by Turkish audiences many years later after the launch of private television channels. In 1987, he directed another important Turkish film, "Sarı Mercedes - Fikrimin İnci Gülüne" (Yellow Mercedes - The Pearl of My Mind's Rose).