Javier Enriquez

Çolpan İlhan (1936-2014) was a Turkish theatre and cinema actress. Born in İzmir in 1936, İlhan grew up in various Anatolian cities due to her father, Bedri İlhan, a lawyer, taking up postings as a district governor. Her childhood was spent in Bahçe, Adana and Sındırgı, Balıkesir. While attending Balıkesir High School, she transferred to Kandilli Girls' High School and graduated from there. She then graduated from the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory's theatre department and the State Academy of Fine Arts' painting department. During this time, she co-founded a theatre group with her academy friends called Akademi Tiyatrosu and produced plays. A film offer led her to play the lead role in her first film, *Kamelyalı Kadın*, in 1957. That same year, she made her professional theatre debut with Münir Özkul and Uğur Başaran in the play *Sevgili Gölge* at the Küçük Sahne. After three seasons at Küçük Sahne, which subsequently disbanded, she performed in Müfit Ofluoğlu and Sabahattin Kudret Aksal's *Tersine Dönen Şemsiye* at Oda Tiyatrosu. She later acted with Kent Oyuncuları in Güner Sümer's *Yarın Cumartesi*, and with the Kenter family in *Baharın Sesi*, *Nalınlar*, and *Aptal Kız*. She took a break from acting after the birth of her son, Kerem. Returning to acting in the mid-1960s, she appeared in nearly 300 films. After consistently playing leading roles in films until the late 1970s, İlhan left the film industry and focused on fashion design, establishing a fashion house called Çolpan Moda in Nişantaşı. In later years, she appeared more in television series. In the 2000s, she appeared in *Tatlı Hayat* as Feraye and in *Yanık Koza* as Esmanur. Çolpan İlhan passed away on July 25, 2014, in her Nişantaşı home in Istanbul, after suffering a heart attack. Her funeral was held two days later, after a ceremony at the Harbiye Muhsin Ertuğrul Stage and a prayer at the Teşvikiye Mosque, and she was buried in Zincirlikuyu Cemetery, beside Sadri Alışık. Çolpan İlhan was the sister of Attila İlhan (1925-2005), one of the most important names in 20th-century Turkish poetry, and Cengiz İlhan (1927-2011), a lawyer and founder of the Bar Association. Although she was previously engaged to Metin Erksan, Fikret Hakan, and Münir Özkul, she married the unforgettable film actor Sadri Alışık (1925-1995) on August 20, 1959, and remained married to him until his death. Their son, Kerem Alışık, born in 1960, also became an actor. They also had a grandson with the same name as her husband. The actress, who was awarded the title of State Artist by the Ministry of Culture in 1998, founded the Sadri Alışık Culture Center in 1997.