Tarık Akan (born Tarık Tahsin Üregül, 13 December 1949 – 16 September 2016) was a Turkish film actor and producer, who started his activity in the 1970s. He acted in a total of 110 films, and won numerous awards from various festivals including Cannes and Berlin. He won an Honourable Mention at the 35th Berlin International Film Festival for his role in Pehlivan. He entered a movie actor contest of the magazine Ses ("Voice"), and ended up runner up. He studied acting under the eye of famous Turkish film director Ertem Eğilmez (1929–1989). He made his film debut in 1970 at the age of 21 in Vefasız, and adopted the stage name "Tarık Akan". Between 1970 and 1975, in the heyday of Yeşilçam, he acted in 12 films a year in average. He appeared with Emel Sayın in Mavi Boncuk, Hülya Koçyiğit in Sev Kardeşim, Hale Soygazi in Gece Kuşu Zehra, and entered into the "list of unforgettables" with Hababam Sınıfı. At first, most of his roles were in romantic comedies. Later in his career, he has taken on more political and dramatic roles. The first film of this genre was Nehir, in which he shared the role with Cüneyt Arkın. Political films like Maden, Sürü, Yol and Kanal followed.