Actor Turhan Bey died 30 September 2012 of Parkinson’s Disease. Born Turhan Selahattin Sahultavy on 30 March 1922 in Vienna Austria, he was a star in the early 1940s, especially in the Arabian Nights series. He left Hollywood in 1953 and returned to Europe and his first love, fashion photography, but came back to film-making in the early 1990s. His final roles were two guest appearances on Babylon 5, as the Centauri Emperor in “The Coming of Shadows” (1995) and as Turval in “Learning Curve” (1998).

Bey’s father was a Turkish military attache serving in Austria, where he met a Czechoslovakian Jewish woman and married her. After the boy’s birth, his parents later divorced, and Bey and his mother left Austria for the United States, escaping the Nazis. In 1941, while studying to improve his English, Bey’s teacher convinced him to take a role in a stage play, in which a Warner Brothers talent scout discovered him and signed him to a contract.

Bey’s genre roles include: The Mummy’s Tomb (1942), Arabian Nights (1942), Captive Wild Woman (1943), The Mad Ghoul (1943), The Climax (1944), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944), Sudan (1945), Night in Paradise (1946), Song of India (1949), SeaQuest 2032 (1993), VR.5 (1995), The Skateboard Kid II (1995), Virtual Combat (1995), and The Visitor (1997).

At the height of his popularity, Bey was described as “exotic” and “the Turkish delight”, but apparently much of his star power was due to a lack of stars in Hollywood, as the likes of Clark Gable and Robert Taylor were serving in the military. When they returned from the war, Bey’s star faded, and he returned to Vienna. His return to Hollywood came in a guest role on Murder, She Wrote in 1993, along with a co-starring role in the movie Healer the same year.

Bey has no surviving immediate family. His death was announced by Marita Ruiter, who exhibits his photos in her Luxembourg gallery.