- Born
- Died
- Birth nameTurhan Gilbert Selahattin Sahultavy
- Nickname
- Turkish Delight
- Height1.75 m
- Popular leading man in 1940's Hollywood who, with his suave demeanor, exotically handsome looks and well-modulated voice, was first called upon to portray mysterious or villainous characters. Soon he would be teamed with other "exotics" (e.g. Maria Montez and Sabu) in a series of escapist adventures, filmed in glorious Technicolor and set in lands of fable, which proved most popular with movie audiences of the World War II years. But with the end of the war, his career (like that of Montez) would decline. He ultimately returned to his city of birth to pursue opportunities in commercial photography.- IMDb mini biography by: Bill Takacs <kinephile@aol.com>
- As a young boy newly arrived in the US, Bey was introduced to Albert Einstein, as Bey's uncle was a mathematician who worked with Einstein. Bey and Einstein kept up a close friendship over the years.
- Once seriously involved with Lana Turner, he was provoked into a fight with her ex-hubby at the time, brief 1940s actor Stephen Crane. Shortly afterward, he severed the relationship.
- His Moslem father was a military attaché in the Turkish Embassy in Vienna who had lost his right arm in World War I. When his parents divorced, Turhan and his Jewish mother fled to America after Hitler's Austrian Anschluss, where they settled in Los Angeles.
- His early interest in photography earned him a place with an archaeological expedition to Tibet, and ultimately led to his return to life in Vienna where he flourished as a fashion photographer.
- At the height of his popularity, which came during World War II, he was known as "the Turkish delight".
- It was quite wonderful in those years [mid-1940s]. One was young and good-looking, and it seems those were the very two things everyone was looking for.
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