Birol Ünel
Birol Ünel (18 August 1961 – 3 September 2020) was a Turkish-German actor who played in German and Turkish films, television, and theatrical productions. He was perhaps best known for his role as the alcoholic Cahit Tomruk in Fatih Akin's 2004 drama film Head-On, for which he received the German film prize for Best Actor.
Birol Ünel
Lieberraldus · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1961.
- Died
- 2020.
- Nationality
- ["Turkey" and "Germany"].
- Occupation
- ["film actor", "stage actor", "television actor" and "actor"].
In this article
Life and career
Ünel was born in Silifke, Mersin, in southern Turkey. In 1968, his family moved to Brinkum near Bremen in Germany. He studied acting at the Musikhochschule Hannover.
Ünel began as a theatre actor at the Berlin Tacheles where he played the lead and also directed the play Caligula. Ünel made his film debut in 1988's The Passenger. He played a private detective in the film Dealer which he followed up with a role in Fatih Akin's In July. He then portrayed the alcoholic Cahit Tomruk in Akin's Head-On (Gegen die Wand), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale 2004 and brought him international recognition. Ünel also won the German film prize for Best Actor for this performance.
In 2005 Ünel acted in the hit Turkish film Hırsız var!; his later films included Transylvania (2006), Seven Heroes and Soul Kitchen (2009). His career declined after struggles with alcohol and he was also in the news with minor criminal charges and homelessness.
Ünel died at a hospital in Berlin on 3 September 2020, aged 59, after suffering from cancer. He also suffered from alcoholism.
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
2020
Birol Ünel died on 3 September 2020.
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Birol Ünel, revision 1330075358 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record.
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Chapter 10 Mehmet Kurtuluş and Birol Ünel: Sexualized Masculinities, Normalized Ethnicities, Turkish German Cinema in the New Millennium, 2022
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2022
- Mehmet Kurtuluş and Birol Ünel:, Turkish German Cinema in the New Millennium
Scholarly · Crossref registry
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q25839: Birol Ünel
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Birol Ünel”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1."Gegen die Wand"-Schauspieler : Birol Ünel ist tot (in German) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 4 September 2020
- 2.Going to Extremes: Fatih Akin on His Turkish-German Love Story "Head-On". Indie Wire. 19 June 2005.
- 3.Bekannt aus "Gegen die Wand": Schauspieler Birol Ünel stirbt mit nur 59 Jahren. 4 September 2020.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Chapter 10 Mehmet Kurtuluş and Birol Ünel: Sexualized Masculinities, Normalized Ethnicities, Turkish German Cinema in the New Millennium, 2022Crossref registry
Verifiedscholarly publication
Verifiedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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