Stage and screen actor Hadi Çaman dies at 65
Turkish stage and screen actor, playwright and stage director Hadi Çaman died on Monday night. He was 65. Çaman died due to heart and respiratory failure at the Doğa rest home in İstanbul's Ziverbey neighborhood, where he had been living for the last six months, news agencies reported yesterday.


Doğa rest home owner Levent Cebir told the Anatolia news agency that Çaman died at around 7 p.m. He said the thespian was being treated for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a usually fatal disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement.
Born in 1943 in the Black Sea province of Kastamonu, Çaman moved to İstanbul to attend university and study law. He later transferred to a municipal conservatory. Çaman passed an acting exam at the Dormen Theater and Kent Theater in 1962, starting his professional career as an actor in "Altın Yumruk" -- a Turkish production of Clifford Odets' play "Golden Boy." Throughout his career, Çaman played numerous roles with many private theater companies, including the Gülriz Sururi-Engin Cezzar Theater, the Nisa Serezli-Tolga Aşkıner Theater, Müjdat Gezen's Miyatro and the Şan Theater. In 1982 he founded his own company, the Nişantaşı Yeditepe Theater, and has since put on numerous plays there.

Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay, in a message of condolence, said he was deeply saddened by the loss of Çaman, who, in addition to his career as an actor-director and playwright, also served in the development of theater in Turkey by raising young artists. Çaman was to be buried yesterday afternoon at the Karacaahmet Cemetery following a ceremony at the Hadi Çaman Theater and prayers at the Teşvikiye Mosque.