Aylin Berkay exhibited three distinctive physical characteristics in each of the 12 films she made, regardless of whether she was acting in a comedic role (as in Oh oh! opposite Aydemir Akbaş and Kamer Baba [real name: Kamer Sadık]) or in a more serious role (as in Esmerin Adı Sarışının Tadı with Tarik Şimsek and Zerrin Doğan).

The first thing that jumps out when Aylin Hanım appears on screen is her huge mane of bright blonde hair, which (as a budding poet once wrote) “didn’t match what you see down there.”

Later, when the plot calls for a less dressed Aylin, you notice her second physical characteristic: her youthful upper torso.

And when Aylin Hanım shows off her signature “Astonished Innocence” look on screen, thus exhibiting her third physical feature, you might think she was in the presence of the original Dumb Blonde woman.

But you would be wrong.

Because Aylin was originally a man, named Ali, who fulfilled his compulsory military duty with honor, as a member in good standing of the Turkish Army Military Marching Band.

It is not recorded exactly when Ali Berkay (or possibly Ali Saraç) had ‘the operation’ and changed to Aylin Berkay.

But after making movies like Oh oh! Y Beyoglu Pilicleri (beyoglu chicks) as a woman, she stopped making films altogether after 1979 and reinvented herself

as a stage singer and recording artist, under the name Serbülent Sultan.

Other notable Turkish transsexual performers of stage and screen include: Emel Aydan (whose male name was Erdoğan Kaşif, and who once had a striptease act in a Milan nightclub, performing under the name Rita Santiago), Tijen Erman (alias Christian Carol), Derya Sonay, and Ahenk Dalgalıdeniz.

And here you thought, Dear readerthat bulent ersoy ‘writes the book’ on transgender Turkish artists…

[Click following to access a picture-laden HTML-version of Aylin Berkay’s entry (with movie-clip) — in the The Whole Earth Catalog

of Turkish Movies/Films, etc.]

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