Zeki Alpan is a theater and cinema artist who was born on January 1, 1908 in Istanbul and died in the same city on November 1, 1992. He started his stage life at a young age by apprenticing under Naşit Özcan in 1926, and later reinforced his experiences by working in Muammer Karaca's theatre. Alpan, who has been active for more than fifty years throughout his artistic career, has demonstrated competence in many fields such as acting, scriptwriting, directing and make-up.
Alpan, who appeared in a wide range of films as an actor, entered the cinema in the early 1930s with productions such as "Wedding Night" and "If My Wife Cheats on Me". While he took part in popular films such as "Kerem and Aslı" in the 1940s, "Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe" and "Sihirli Define" in the 1950s, he also appeared on the screen in works such as "Kalpaklılar", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", "Kara Murat Fatih's Edict" in the 1960s and 1970s.
In the 1980s, he continued his mark in cinema by giving his final performances in productions such as "Zübük", "Renkli Dünya" and "Gırgır Hafiye".
In addition to acting, Alpan also took an active role in his screenwriting career. He wrote the scripts of films such as "Caz Saz", "İstanbul Havası / Arşak Sulukule'de" and "Yıldızlar Revüsü" in 1952, and took the writer's chair in projects such as "Tolerance, Never Mind, Never Mind / Memo Festivalde" in 1953 and "Nasreddin Hodja and Tamerlane" in 1954.
He contributed to screenwriting with works such as "Bir Garip Adam" in 1965 and "Himmet Ağa'nın Marriage" in 1986.
The directing aspect also reinforced Alpan's versatile artistry. He started directing in 1951 with "Allaha We Ordered" and then directed films such as "Caz Saz", "İstanbul Havası / Arşak Sulukule'de", "Yıldızlar Revüsü" and "Hoşgör, Never Mind, Never Mind / Memo Festivalde". He once again demonstrated his competence in this field by directing the production "Bir Garip Adam" in 1965.
