UPDATE - Kartal Tibet, veteran Turkish film actor, dies aged 83

UPDATES WITH TURKISH PARLIAMENT SPEAKER'S MESSAGE

By Salih Seref and Aise Humeyra Bulovali

ISTANBUL (AA) - Kartal Tibet, a distinguished Turkish actor and screenwriter, has died at the age of 83.

“Goodbye, my brother Kartal, I will miss you so much,” wrote actor Civan Canova on social media early Friday, sharing a black-and-white photo of his longtime colleague.

The Turkish Culture Ministry also confirmed the passing of the veteran actor.

“We learned with deep sadness of the death of the master actor, director, and screenwriter #KartalTibet, who left unforgettable traces in our cinema and theater history,” the ministry wrote on Twitter.

On Twitter, Turkey's parliament speaker marked the loss of the veteran actor.

"Kartal Tibet, who served as an actor and director for Turkish cinema and left traces on the big screen of our childhood with his unforgettable characters, has passed away," said Mustafa Sentop.

"My condolences to his family, fans and our art community. Rest in peace," he noted.

The veteran actor was born in 1938 in the capital Ankara and acted in nearly 200 movies for the Turkish cinema industry.

A graduate of Ankara University’s State Conservatory Theater Department, the actor’s films rank among the classics of Yesilcam, as Turkish Hollywood in the 1950s through ‘70s is known.

In 1961, Tibet was among the founders of Ankara's first private theater, Meydan Sahne.

Tibet is well known for his role in the movie series Tarkan, adopted from Sezgin Burak’s cartoon character, “a fearless and loyal warrior of Attila the Hun” as well as other adaptations of print stories for the screen.

Tibet made his directorial debut with the film Tosun Pasha in 1977, and directed 56 films, most of them local blockbusters. Tibet also worked in more than 20 of these films with legendary Turkish comedian Kemal Sunal.

In 2006, Tibet directed The Son of the Man Who Saved the World (Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam'in Oglu), commonly known as Turks in Space, and Americans at the Black Sea, a comedy about a US military recovery operation on Turkey's Black Sea coast.