İsmail Hakkı Dümbüllü

İsmail Hakkı Dümbüllü (1897, İstanbul – 5 November 1973, Istanbul), Turkish comedy actor.

He is the last representative of ortaoyunu (middle show) tradition in traditional Turkish theatre.

Dümbüllü İsmail worked with Bald Hasan Efendi, a master actor of comedy in the Turkish theatre, between 1917 and 1926 and learned the art of tulûat (traditional improvisational theater) from him. No other actor who performs tulûat in master-apprentice relationship has been seen after Dümbüllü İsmail.

In 1928, İsmail Hakkı Dümbüllü founded his own troupe with Tevfik İnce in Istanbul, and he began touring Anatolia in 1922. He became a star in cinema as a 'folk comedian'; and was mostly identified with the Nasreddin Hodja character in the films he played. He was the lead actor in a series of comedies: Dümbüllü Macera Peşinde (Dümbüllü in Search of Adventure, Şadan Kamil, 1948), Dümbüllü Sporcu (Dümbüllü the Sportsman, Seyf Havaeri, 1952), and Dümbüllü Tarzan (Dümbüllü Tarzan, Muharrem Gürses, 1954). Before start making films, he played orta oyunu (middle show) and tulûat at TRT Istanbul Radio. His efforts in transferring orta oyunu plays to radio and cinema was effective in making the art of traditional Turkish theater known by more people and ensuring the continuity of the orta oyunu tradition.

Dümbüllü took over his teacher Bald Hasan Efendi's turban (kavuk), representing the orta oyunu (middle show) and his fez, representing art of tuluat, and handed these two symbols to Münir Özkul in 1968. These two symbols continue to be passed on in a traditional ceremony among Turkish theater actors.

He died at November 5, 1973 after a traffic accident.