İsmet Ay was born in Istanbul on December 28, 1924 and passed away in the same city on October 7, 2004. After graduating from the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory Theater Department, he started his professional stage life by joining the City Theaters in 1948. He served in this institution for many years and retired in 1980 after 32 years of service.
Television viewers still remember Ay's performance in the TV series Süper Baba, where he was known for his character "Sermet". At the same time, he performed as a guest artist in the theaters of Tolga Aşkıner and Ali Poyrazoğlu, and established close friendships with famous names of the period such as Zeki Müren and Ferdi Özbeğen.
Even as his disease progressed, he continued to meet his audience by taking part in the TV series Cennet Mahallesi; After his death, he was buried in Şile.
His acting was also enriched with stage plays. In 1965, he performed in Güner Sümer's play "Bozuk even" at Ankara Art Theatre, and in 1969 he performed in Carlo Goldoni's play "Liar" at Istanbul City Theatre. He consolidated his place in the theater world by performing Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" in 1987, Aristophanes' "The Birds" in 1989 and Moliere's "Tartuffe" in 1992 in the same theater.
His cinema career started in 1952 with the movie "Can Yoldaşı" and he took part in a number of productions that lasted until 2004. In addition to his early films such as "Is It a Sin to Love", "The Lion Cub", "Shameless Man", "Sinekli Grocery Store", "Moaning Tune" and "The Owner of My Heart", he also met the audience in productions such as "Afife Jale", "Colorful World", "Headmen of the Neighborhood", "Mutlu Günler" and "Cennet Mahallesi".
The artist's success was crowned with various awards. In 1987, he won the Best Actor award from the Avni Dilligil Theater Award thanks to his performance in "The Cherry Orchard", and a year later he received the Best Actor award from the Ministry of Culture. In 1992, he received the Best Supporting Actor award at the Ankara International Film Festival for his supporting role in the movie "Seni Seviyorum Rosa", and in 2000, he received the Yıldırım Önal Memorial Award at the 37th Golden Orange Film Festival.
Productions in which he took part
He took part in 25 productions in total; 12 of the most well-known are listed.
- Sweet Crazy People (1996) — Dürdane
- Cennet Mahallesi (2004)
- Super Dad (1993) — Sermet
- Prosecutor (1992)
- Cumhuriyet (1998) — Doyuranli Ismail Hakki Bey
- Three Istanbuls (1983) — Land Registry Director Senih Efendi
- Afife Jale (1987)
- Sweet Sin (1961)
- Trace (1994)
- The Woman to Be Hanged (1986) — Khusrev
- Disordered Order (1966)
- Aaahh Belinda (1986) — Father-in-law
Production and imprint information was taken from TMDB.
