Romalı Perihan

Perihan Özkurt (born Perihan Benli; 18 March 1942 – 5 May 2016), socialite, painter, model, columnist, and actress who was married to the late Iranian nobleman Bijan, Prince of Esfandiari-Bakhtiari in Italy. However, in the European media Romalı Perihan was sometimes credited as Peri-Han, Peri Han, and Pery Han.

She died aged 74 in Istanbul on 5 May 2016. Her father was from Bursa. She had two siblings. in Monte Carlo.

When she was fourteen years old, she appeared for the first time on film, as the daughter of the protagonist in an Egyptian film shot in Cairo where she met Omar Sharif. Two years later, she married the 33-year-old Bijan, Prince Esfandiari-Bakhtiari (15 October 1937, Isfahan – 29 October 2001, Paris) who was the second and youngest child of Prince Khalil Khan Esfandiary (1901–1983), a Bakhtiari nobleman and Iranian ambassador to West Germany in the 1950s, and his Russian-born German wife Princess Eva "Evchen" Karl (1906–1994), and younger brother of Soraya Esfandiari-Bakhtiari, second wife of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran.

As a result of her polyglotism and eclectic, wide-ranging repertoire of contemporary and narrative songs in Italian and Turkish, Perihan, in her mid-twenties, performed periodically as a soloist in Asım İslamoğlu

Romalı Perihan's second husband was Erdem Mısırlı, Turkish businessman and founder of the Mısırlı Triko brand.

In 1990, Federico Fellini wanted her cast in the leading role in his then-upcoming film La voce della luna; however, she regretfully refused since she was busy with wedding preparations in Germany. Her third and last husband was B. Bensan, who was a German engineer of Mercedes-Benz. The couple lived in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, one of the eight adopted children of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who is the founder of the Republic of Turkey. Adatepe died in 2012. Among Perihan's close companions were Erol Simavi, Geraldine Chaplin, Sakıp Sabancı, She gave this interview towards the end of her life while she was residing in Turkey.

A summary of what she talks about in this interview is as follows:

Her Turkish parents lived in Rome, and were in the high society. So, Romali Perihan was born and raised in Rome. She mentions that she blended in very well and was seen no different than an Italian because her looks weren’t too distinguishable and she spoke fluent Italian as her first language. She also had been accustomed to the Italian way of living as she spent her entire childhood there.

Romali Perihan attended acting schools and started taking roles in movies. She worked with the famous Italian director Federico Fellini, and she’s actually known to be the only Turkish person to have worked with him.

At the age of 16, she married the Iranian prince; the prince's sister was a close connection of her mother's. During the course of her acting career, however, she never disclosed her marriage. She states she kept it private because she didn't want to be known by who her husband or her parents were, but rather by her own accomplishments as an actress. Further, she knew that her friends and co-workers weren't as privileged and were struggling in the industry, so she did not want to vaunt. Romali Perihan still came to be nicknamed a princess, however, after she played some roles as a princess. She jokes in the interview about how the crown is always there somehow.

Diving more into her private life, she reveals that her marriage to the Prince was short-lived; she ended up getting a divorce when the Prince and his sister took her to get an abortion without Perihan's knowledge or consent. She was never able to have children after that operation, due to surgical error.

Perihan spoke fluent Turkish and Italian, and she knew five languages in total. The Italian media was referring to her as ‘la Bella Turca,’ or "the pretty Turk". Meanwhile in Turkey, she was known as Perihan of Rome. Undoubtedly, this is a reflection of the cultural confusion and identity problem that most multi-cultural people are inevitably subject to.

She tells the interviewer that she had four marriages in total over her lifetime and lived a glamorous socialite life overall. After her acting career came to an end, she took voice lessons and got an opera education, impressively when she was already past the age of 40. Then she successfully became a soprano singer.

Perihan recounts that she felt the most sense of belonging in Turkey. Thus, she moved to Turkey and spent the last decades of her life there until her death.

Discography

LP recordings O Bendim O: O'nun Hikâyesi (Nova Stereo, 1976) (writer(s), Pierre Bachelet, Ülkü Aker) Görünce Seni (writer (s), Consuelo Velázquez, et al.) Romalı Perihan'ın Arabesk Dünyası "Gitme Sana Muhtacım" "Senin Olmaya Geldim"

Compilations featuring Romalı Perihan Bir Zamanlar 4... (Ossi Music, 2008) (With the song "Histoire d'O")

Filmography

Film and television Year Title Role Notes 1960 La dolce vita Film 1969 Fellini Satyricon Goddess Film 1970 Waterloo Film 1971 Web of the Spider Film 1971 Eye of the Spider Film 1973 Il magnate Film 1975 Kaygısızlar Film 1978 Kaplanlar Ağlamaz Perihan Film 1980 Akıllı Deliler Film 1982 Elveda Dostum Film 1989 Hiçbir Gece Suna Film

Special guest appearances Year Title Role Notes 1974 Parasızlar Herself singing "Parla più piano" Film

Awards and nominations YearAwardCategoryResultReference1976 Hey Magazine Awards Most Promising Female Singer of the Year (voted by readers)Nominated