ObituaryKemal Sunal
Turkish comic star who spoke for the dreams of his peopleThe Turkish actor and comedian Kemal Sunal, who has died of a heart attack aged 55, made his name by articulating the hopes and dreams of the Anatolian masses. A huge body of work made him, perhaps, the country's most popular comic. In a 30-year career, he appeared in more than 80 films and numerous television sitcoms, usually portraying lovable downtrodden characters; his films, endlessly repeated on television, always drew huge audiences.
His forte was to represent the trials and tribulations of ordinary Turkish villagers. In a country where millions of people have migrated in the last two decades from the countryside to the cities, Sunal instinctively understood their sense of dislocation. He expressed, as the sociologist Ozcan Koknel pointed out, the "feelings, opinions, expectations and goals of society" and released people from their inhibitions.
Born in Istanbul, Sunal began his career on the stage in the 1960s, but soon moved into film. One of his best-loved characters was a good-hearted but dim-witted student, known as "Saban the Cow". The name has entered the Turkish language as a byword for the well-meaning fool who makes people laugh at each other - and by implication at themselves.
Sunal rose to prominence during a period of social upheaval in Turkey in the 1970s and 1980s, which was marked by widespread street violence between political rivals and a military coup. Through it all, he provided comic relief and a voice of clarity amid considerable confusion.
More recently, Sunal had hoped to develop his career as a film producer. His last film, Propaganda (1999), had shown a harder political edge than some of his earlier work. It portrayed a village divided with barbed wire by two rival gangs, lampooned the state's apparent inability to understand its citizens, and was seen by some as a comment on the artificial divisions between Turks and Kurds.
Sunal had a lifelong fear of flying and had not been on a plane for many years. Last week, however, he was persuaded to take an early morning flight from Istanbul to the Black Sea city of Trabzon, where he was due to start work on another film. Just before take-off, Sunal suffered a heart attack. Fellow passengers said it took 21 minutes for an ambulance to arrive - and then it had no doctor on board. The man who spent his life poking fun at the system was finally defeated by it.
Sunal was a modest man, who avoided the limelight, but his funeral in Istanbul drew thousands of people and was televised across Turkey. Mourners and viewers alike felt they had lost a beloved member of their family. People, observed the commentator Mehmet Ali Birand, liked the way Sunal spoke the truth.
He is survived by his wife, a daughter and a son.
Kemal Sunal, actor and comedian, born November 11 1944; died July 3 2000
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