Fahrettin Cüreklibatır, better known by his stage nameCüneyt Arkın, is a Turkishfilm actor, director, producer and martial artist. Having starred in somewhere around 300 movies and TV series, he is widely considered as one of the most prominent Turkish actors of all time. His films shown abroad credited him as George Arkin. Arkın's films have ranged from well-received dramas to mockbusters throughout his career spanning four decades. Early in his career, Arkın became known for starring in historical dramas taking place during the first centuries of the Ottoman Empire and Anatolian Seljuks, such as Malkoçoğlu Cem Sultan and Battal Gazi. While gaining success with such action-based films, he also took part in political films in the late 1970s, the most famous of those being The Adam Trilogy directed by Remzi Aydın Jöntürk. Arkın and Jöntürk continued their collaboration on many other films. Cüneyt Arkın and Fatma Girik are one of the most famous partners of Yeşilçam Turkish cinema. In the 1980s, Arkın became known abroad for the film Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam, a low-budgetscience fantasymartial arts film, tentatively famous for featuring bootlegged scenes from Star Wars. Today, the B movie has a cult following.
Biography
Fahrettin Cüreklibatur was born in the village of Gökçeoğlu in the Alpu district of Eskişehir Province, Turkey to a family of Crimean Tatar and Nogai origin. While he was doing his military service as a reserve officer in his hometown of Eskişehir, he caught the attention of director Halit Refiğ during the filming of Şafak Bekçileri starring Göksel Arsoy. After completing his military service, he worked as a doctor in and around Adana. In 1963, he won the first prize in the Artist magazine. Seeking a job for a while, Cüneyt Arkın started acting in 1963 with the offer of Halit Refiğ and translated at least 30 films in two years. The fight scene in the end in film Gurbet Kuşları in 1964 was a breaking point in Arkın's career. After playing emotional and romantic young characters for a while, he turned to action films with the suggestion of Halit Refiğ. During this period, he studied acrobatics at the Medrano Circus in Istanbul for six months. By transferring what he learned here in the Malkoçoğlu and Battalgazi series to the big screen, he brought a unique style to Turkish cinema. He soon became the most sought-after actor in avanture films. Although he started his film career with romantic young heroes, he continued with action films, but almost every character died. Throughout his career, he has shot various genres from western to comedy, from adventure movies to social movies. Especially, Maden and Citizen Rıza occupy a special place in Cüneyt Arkın's career.
Personal life
After graduation from the university as a physician, Cüreklibatır married his classmate Güler Mocan in 1965. In 1966, their daughter Filiz was born. The marriage did not last long due to Cüreklibatır's newly flourishing career as a film actor. In 1968, he took the stage name Cüneyt Arkın, and met Betül Işıl, the daughter of a wealthy family that owned a tile manufacturing company. Işıl, a graduate of a university in Switzerland was working as a flight attendant at the time. They were engaged in 1969, married in 1970, and divorced in 1971. Soon afterwards, they remarried and Betül gave birth to two sons, Murat and Kaan Polat. Arkın's wife and sons have starred in several of his films.
