Kemal Sunal (11 November 1944, Malatya, Turkey - 3 July 2000, Istanbul) was a Turkish actor. With "Hababam Sınıfı", "Kapıcılar Kralı" and "Davaro", Sunal gained large popularity amongst Turkish cinema goers and was famed for his role as "Şaban", a name he most often used in his films. His character in films and sayings often reflected the problems the Turkish people face and the country.

Biography

Sunal kept himself and his family away from the media and rarely appeared in public. People who knew him have commented on how serious he was in his real life, in contrast to the funny characters he played in his movies. Whilst he was at the top of his career, he decided to finish university, which he had left in his early career. Despite his fame, he attended the university like a regular student and stated that "that was the way he liked it to be".

Sunal’s dreams of higher-education had been disrupted in 1980, during the period of military takeover. His attempts to earn a degree finally paid off in 1995, when he earned his bachelor’s degree in Radio Television and Cinema Studies from Marmara University. He then decided to pursue a master’s degree (the topic of his thesis being himself), which he earned in 1998, also from Marmara University. This incident was covered by the media with headlines like "İnek Şaban Master Yaptı" (Şaban the Geek got a master’s degree) while his 'class-mates' from Hababam Sinifi made comments like "Profesorluk Bekliyoruz" ("We expect full professorship"). At his graduation ceremony, he made a speech where he joked that his path of first working and then attending university later in life was better as it allowed people to gain real life experience earlier.

Kemal Sunal died on July 3, 2000, as a result of a sudden heart attack aboard a flight to Trabzon just before take off. He was reported to be afraid of flying. His death caused mourning that swept the entire nation and dominated news coverage for many days. He was interred at the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery in Istanbul.

Kemal Sunal was married to Gül Sunal and he had two children, Ali and Ezo Sunal.