Theater,
cinema and television series actor. (B. 8th September 1932 Istanbul
– D. 15th August 2012, Istanbul). He was the son of the diplomat Ahmet
Naci Kenter and Olga Cynthia of English origin. He was the brother of the
theater and cinema actress and director Yıldız Kenter and the brother-in-law of
Şükran Güngör. After he got married to and divorced from Mehlika Kenter and
Gülsüm Kamu, he got married to Kadriye Kenter. Müşfik Kenter started theater acting
in the Children’s Division of the Ankara Devlet Tiyatrosu (T.N. Ankara State
Theater) in 1947. After playing parts in various plays in the Ankara Children’s
Theater (1948-49), he entered to the Ankara State Conservatory (1950) and he
finished the Department of Theater with a high level in the year 1955. After
that, he entered into the State Theaters. Before resigning from this
institution, he performed successful plays such as “Oğuz Ata” (1955) from Selâhattin Batu, “Yağmurcu” (1956) from N.
Richard Nash, “Aşk Acısı”
(1957) from Marcel Achard, “Çöl
Faresi” (1958) from Ladislaus Fodor.
Müşfik Kenter left the
Ankara State Theater in the year of 1959 and started to work under Muhsin
Ertuğrul, together with his sister Yıldız Kenter, in Istanbul. They performed
plays in Küçük Sahne. They came together with his sister's husband Şükran
Güngör and Kamuran Yüce in this period. They founded the Site Theater in Istanbul
in the years of 1960-61. They changed the name of this group as Kent Oyuncuları
in 1962. Yıldız Kenter, Müşfik Kenter and Şükran Güngör completed the
construction of the own building of the Kenter Theater in the year of 1968 in Istanbul.
After the completion of the construction of the theater, they realized that
they had invested all the money in their pockets to this place. They went on
the road for a big tour of
Müşfik Kenter accomplished
theater researches and made investigations in the United States of America
(USA) and
In addition to theater
playing, Müşfik Kenter also took parts in cinema movies. He made dubbing in
local and foreign television films. He started cinema acting with the movie “Sessiz Harp” (1961) directed by
Lütfi Akad. He drew interesting compositions in cinema movies such as Bozuk
Düzen” (1965) from Haldun Dormen, Murtaza” (1966) from Tunç Başaran, “Sevmek Zamanı” (1966) from Metin Erksan and “Üç Arkadaş” (1971) from
Memduh Ün. Müşfik Kenter, who made dubbings in local and foreign television
films for a long time, also worked in radio plays, among which the most famous
is “Uğurlugil Ailesi” created
by Selçuk Kaskan. He played the leading role in the television series named “Kanun
Adamı” in the year of 1983. Besides, he played in the following cinema
movies: “Hayallerim, Aşkım ve Sen”(1987),
“Rumuz Goncagül” (1987) , “Gecenin Öteki
Yüzü” (1988), “Lebewohl Fremde”
(1991), “Moon Time” (1994), “Dar Alanda Kısa Paslaşmalar” (2000), “Amerikalılar Karadeniz’de” (2007).
He put forward characters
who were admiringly watched by the audience in television series such as “Mevlana Aşkı Dansı”, “Sessiz Gemiler”, “Elveda Yabancı”, “Çöl Faresi”
(1977), “Emekli Başkan” (1979), “Geçmiş Bahar Mimozaları” (1989), “Ateşten Günler” (1988), “Gecenin Öteki Yüzü” (1987), “Kurtuluş” (1994), “Hayat Bazen Tatlıdır” (1996), “Şapkadan
Babam Çıktı” (2003), “Zümrüt”
(2004), “Kapıları Açmak” (2005), “Avrupa Yakası” (2009). The principal
awards that he received are: 1960 the İlhan İskender Award, “the Best
Co-starring Actor” award by the Antalya Altın Portakal Film Festival in 1966, “the
Best Actor” of Ulvi Araz in 1981, “the Best Actor” of Ankara Art Institution in
1981 and 1985 and the “Special Award of Muhsin Ertuğrul” in the Afife Jale Theater
Awards in 1997.
After having retired from the tutorage of the State Conservatory of the Mimar Sinan University, Kenter worked as the Head of Department of Theater of the Conservatory of the Haliç University and the General Art Director of the City Theater of the Municipality of Bakırköy. Müşfik Kenter was a theater player who performed ideally the theater conception determined by the conservatory education and who enriched this conception in a creative and innovative way. He enlarged the boundaries of his talents and transferred his experiences to students during his long years of tutorage at the Istanbul Municipality Conservatory.