Stage actress and director (b. 1929, İstanbul - d. 31 December 2018, Istanbul). Her mother was the first Turkish prima donna
(operetta artist) Suzan Lütfullah Sururi, and her father, Lütfullah Sururi, was
one of the first founders of operetta in Turkey. Her uncles are Yusuf Celâl and
Ali Sururi, who were the first operetta actors and playwrights. Also, she is
the niece of the first Turkish woman appeared on the stage, Mevdude Refik
Hanım. Real surname of the Sururi family is Eruluç. The family gets its name
from Sururi Ali Pasha.
Her profession seems to
be determined when Gülriz Sururi got on the stage in her mother’s belly and
when she was born into a family of players. She continued her education in the
field of theatre and started having acting successes at a young age. At Muhsin
Ertuğrul’s request, she appeared on the stage in Istanbul Municipal Theatre
when she was 12. Muhsin Ertuğrul found her talented and chose her to attend the
Conservatory as a student. She took theatre, singing and ballet lessons at the
Conservatory from important teachers of that period. She had to earn her living
at a young age. Before graduating from the Conservatory, she started playing
leading roles in some special societies. She became a professional actress in
1943 by acting in plays of “The Frogs”
by Aristophanes and “Ondine” by Jean
Giraudoux in Istanbul Şehir Tiyatrosu (T.N. Istanbul City Theatre). At the same
time, she played bit parts in the touring plays of the society, which her
uncles and father founded; and served as an apprentice of the great masters.
In the ensuing years,
she played in Muammer Karaca and Dormen theatres (1960). In 1961, she started
playing in Dormen Theatre with the play “Ben
Bir Fotoğraf Makinesiyim”. She won the İlhan İskender Award for best actress
for her role in “Sokak Kızı İrma”,
which was staged in Dormen Theatre. After marrying stage actor Engin Cezzar, she
founded Gülriz Sururi-Engin Cezzar Theatre in 1962.
She also continued her
success after founding her own theatre. Once again in year 1966, she won Best
Actress Award for her role in “Teneke”. In the same year, she was chosen
by Turkish Women’s Union as the “Woman of the Year”. In 1971, she won the Best
Actress Award third time for her role in “Hint Kumaşı”. In
1979-80 theatre season, she, with Mehmet Akan, compiled plays of the society,
which were performed until then, in a collection named “Uzun İnce Bir Yol” and played in this collection. She received the
Avni Dilligil Theatre Award in 1982-83 theatre season for Best Actress for her
role of Edith Piaf in the musical “Kaldırım
Serçesi”, the Altan
Artemis Award from Izmir Journalists Association, and the Superstar Theater
Actor Award in 1983 from Milliyet Newspaper.
With her soft acting,
Gülriz Sururi has performed many successful characters in dramas as well
as in comedies and musicals. She also contributed to Turkish theatre as a
director other than acting. She drew attention by her books as much as she drew
attention in the theatre. She put down her childhood, youth, her adventure of
starting acting, her disappointments, the loves she lived through, the marriages
she passed through (she married again after divorcing Engin Cezzar), her life crossing
with performers, directors, writers and many other artists, on paper in a
manner worthy of literature masters in her first memoir book “Kıldan İnce Kılıçtan Keskince”. She told the post-1980 period in
her second book “Bir An Gelir”. She
started her book with her role in “Kaldırım
Serçesi” as “Edith Piaf”,
in which she made a name for herself with her unforgettable acting and singing.
She fluently told how this play was found, translated, produced and played, and
she took the reader into the world of theatre. In the same book, she put into
words that “Kabare”, “Halide” (Halide Edip Adıvar), “Keşanlı Ali Destanı” and “Kaldırım Serçesi” were made as a TV series, her
first role as “Sokak Kızı İrma”, which she played in again after
years, that Haldun Dormen presented this play third time, and that she bid
farewell to theatre with her last play “Söyleyeceklerim Var”,
which she wrote, directed and played.
Gülriz Sururi produced and
hosted the first unforgettable cooking talk show “A
She gave acting lessons
at Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts for a while. She also made an album
named Müzik Hallerim, consisting of
the songs she sang in musical plays. Kaldırım
Serçesi, Keşanlı Ali Destanı, Sokak Kızı İrma and Kabare are the primary plays that she performed in. Besides, she
directed the musicals Kısmet, Fosforlu
Cevriye, and the plays Biz Sıfırdan
Başladık and Koçinalar Kumpanyası.
She wrote three cookbooks other than memoir, novel and story.
Gülriz Sururi won the 1961
İlhan İskender Award for Best Actress, was awarded for the Best Actress again
in 1966, was chosen as the Woman of the Year by Turkish Women’s Union, was
awarded for Best Actress in 1971, won Avni Dilligil Award in 1982-83 season for
Best Actress. She was deemed worthy of Altan Artemis Award in 1983 by Izmir
Journalists Association, the Superstar Theater Actor Award in 1983 by the Milliyet
Newspaper, and State Artist title in 1998 by Ministry of Culture. At the 16th
Istanbul Theatre Festival, she, together with her husband Engin Cezzar, received
the Honor Award and assumed the title of “State Artist” in 1998, which was
conferred by Ministry of Culture.
BOOKS: Kıldan İnce Kılıçtan Keskince (memoir, 1978), Bir An Gelir (memoir, 2003), Girmediğim Sokaklarda (story, 2003), Biz Kadınlar (newspaper articles, 2003), Seni Seviyorum (novel, 2005).
