About Yılmaz Güney
Yılmaz Güney was a Kurdish film director, screenwriter, novelist, actor and communist political activist. He quickly rose to prominence in the Turkish film industry. Many of his works were made from a far-left perspective and devoted to the plight of working-class people in Turkey. Güney won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982 for the film Yol which he co-directed with Şerif Gören. He was at constant odds with the Turkish government over the portrayal of Kurdish culture, people and language. Güney won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982 for the film Yol (The Road) which he co-directed with Şerif Gören. A year before his death in 1983, he co-founded the Kurdish Institute of Paris together with the Kurdish poets Cegerxwîn and Hejar among others. His first article was published in August 1955 and his first poem a week later while he was still attending high school. After working as an apprentice screenwriter for and assistant to Atıf Yılmaz, he began appearing in as many as twenty films a year and became one of Turkey's the most popular actors.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.