Turkish-Armenian actor returns to work in Istanbul after years abroad

Turkish-Armenian actor returns to work in Istanbul after years abroad

PanARMENIAN.Net - Kevork Malikyan is a humble and sincere actor. He has an extraordinary story which started in Diyarbakır and later continued in Istanbul and London, Today’s Zaman writes.

Malikyan is now in Turkey, where he was born. Since his return two years ago, he has been involved in three major film projects. His filmography is fairly extensive and rich and includes movies in which he worked with famous directors such as Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott and with popular actors such as Dustin Hoffman and Christian Bale.

At the age of 10, Malikyan entered a religious seminary in Istanbul which opened to take in the poor children of Armenian parents from various parts of Turkey and raise them as priests.

In the seminary, there was a small stage where the students acted in Turkish and Armenian. When he was 16, an Anglican priest was invited to the school to teach them English. He was an Oxford graduate who wrote history books. He was fond of acting and had prepared “Richard III” by Shakespeare in English wherein Malikyan played Richard. The priest must have liked Malikyan's acting because he told the headmaster of the school that Malikyan should become an actor rather than a priest. The patriarch asked Malikyan his opinion on this matter but Malikyan was unsure because of financial concerns. Father Harding, a British priest, found him a scholarship in Britain.

His parents did not object to his decision to go to the UK.

Malikyan left Istanbul on a ship and first arrived in Marseilles before heading to London by train. He had no knowledge of English. Malikyan stayed with a British family that Father Harding knew. He continued to write letters to his father, who told him that they would meet some day. After completing his studies at a drama school, he bought a house to bring his parents over. However, his father died in 1974; Malikyan was unable to even attend his funeral. His brothers later moved to Germany and 10 years later, his mother died.

Malikyan decided to move back to his home country because he felt lonely, the report says. In addition, his parents' graves are in Turkey. Two of his brothers died in Germany in different cities while his sister is in France. He thought at least one of them should be in Turkey. His wife moved to Cyprus and his daughter to Tunisia. This left him alone in London. He initially thought he would be buried in a British cemetery when he dies but eventually decided to move to Turkey because he wanted to die there.

Presently, he teaches at Kadir Has University once a week on Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

Photo: Sunday's Zaman
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