Career
Turhan was active in Hollywood from 1941 to 1953. He was dubbed "The Turkish Delight" by his fans. After his return to Austria, he pursued careers as a photographer and stage director
After retiring he appeared in a number of documentaries, including a German-language documentary on his life.
Turhan was born Turhan Gilbert Selahattin Sahultavy in Vienna, Austria, on 30 March 1922, as the son of a Turkish diplomat and a Czechoslovakian Jewish mother. Bey was an acting student at Ben Bard"s School of Dramatic Art and was active in the Pasadena Playhouse.
When he enrolled in classes to improve his English, he also was asked to play a role in a teacher"s play. A talent scout from Warner Brothers was in the audience, was impressed and signed him to a contract, under the name of Turhan Bey.
He often appeared with María Montez.
They appeared in the Universal films Raiders of the Desert, Arabian Nights, White Savage, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Bowery to Broadway, Follow the Boys, and Sudan. He also had roles in Night in Paradise, The Amazing Mr. X and Out of the Blue.
In 1944 a poll by exhibitors of "Stars of Tomorrow" listed him at number nine.
Turhan"s career faded by the late 1940s and, after filming Sam Katzman"s Prisoners of the Casbah in 1953, and facing an unknown scandal, he moved back to Vienna and lived with his mother while working as a photographer for girlie magazines. Turhan returned to the United States in the early 1990s and appeared in two episodes of the science fiction television series Babylon 5: first as the Emperor of the Centauri Republic (who also had the name Turhan), and later as a Minbari Ranger named Turval.
A documentary film about Turhan, Vom Glück verfolgt. Wien - Hollywood - Retour, was made in 2002 by Andrea Eckert.
Turhan died on 30 September 2012 from Parkinson"s disease.