Turkish actress Ece İrtem dies at 35, a day after her birthday; Can Yaman mourns a friend and co-star
The Turkish soap star was found unconscious at her Istanbul home on 15 June, hours after celebrating her 35th birthday. Her family's lawyer confirmed a suspected heart attack, while an autopsy is pending.
A sudden death in Kadıköy
Ece İrtem, a Turkish actress known for roles in Mr. Wrong and Forbidden Fruit, was found dead at her home in Istanbul's Kadıköy district on Monday 15 June 2026. She had turned 35 the day before, on 14 June, and had returned from a holiday in Thailand just days earlier. Surveillance footage from the evening of her birthday shows her at a restaurant, appearing cheerful, but later footage captured around 9 p.m. shows her entering her apartment building visibly unsteady and leaning on her mother for support.
Her mother, Nuriye İrtem, was with her at the time. According to family lawyer Uğur Gökkoyun, the first medical assessments point to a heart attack as the cause of death. The lawyer stressed that the exact cause will be determined by the autopsy report, which has been ordered by the authorities given the unusual nature of a death at such a young age.
Conflicting accounts and the lawyer's rebuttal
The hours after the death brought a swirl of competing narratives. A programme on Turkey's Show TV, Cansu Canan ile Yeni Sayfa, claimed to have obtained a police deposition from Nuriye İrtem. In that account, the mother described taking her daughter to a nearby venue for a birthday celebration at 5:51 p.m., returning home at 8:36 p.m., and putting Ece to bed because she had been drinking alcohol and had taken an antidepressant. The mother reportedly said she found her daughter unresponsive the next morning, with a foul-smelling liquid coming from her mouth.
The mother of my client is in shock since she found her body and has been placed under medical observation; her testimony has not yet been delivered to the police.
Gökkoyun categorically denied that the mother had given such a statement, reiterating that the initial medical finding remains a heart attack and urging the public to wait for the autopsy results. Turkish media, including the newspaper Ensonhaber, reported that the lawyer also dispelled rumours of suicide.
Can Yaman's tribute and a career shift
The death resonated widely in Turkey's entertainment industry. Ece İrtem had worked repeatedly with Can Yaman, one of Turkey's most internationally recognised actors, on the series Bay Yanlış (Mr. Wrong). Yaman reacted by posting a photograph of the two of them together on Instagram, overlaid with a red broken-heart emoji. Other Turkish stars, including Sıla Türkoğlu and Feyza Civelek, also shared public condolences.
My dear Ecem. I still cannot believe you have left this world. You were very valuable and very special to me. You always will be.
For Yaman, the loss arrives during a period of professional reinvention. After winning the Taormina Film Festival Icon Award and wrapping the romantic thriller Il labirinto delle farfalle, he is preparing to join the cast of BRO, a Lux Vide comedy-legal drama. He has shaved his beard and moustache for the role, playing a lawyer who is brilliant in court but awkward in private life, a deliberate departure from the heroic figures he has portrayed before.
I wanted to do something that was very far from me and from the characters the public is used to seeing. After Sandokan I did not want to propose the hero role yet again.
A career cut short
Born on 14 June 1991, Ece İrtem graduated in Opera and Singing from Yaşar University in 2014 and completed her acting training at the Sadri Alışık Cultural Center. She built a steady television career with roles in several productions, most prominently Bay Yanlış, which aired in Portugal on AXN White. Her last Instagram post, just five days before her death, showed a carousel of happy images from her Thailand trip, giving no hint of what was to come.
- Ece and her mother go to a nearby venue for her birthday celebration.
- The two return home; Ece is put to bed, according to the mother's alleged account.
- Surveillance footage shows Ece entering her apartment building, appearing unsteady and leaning on her mother.
- The mother finds Ece unresponsive in her room; death is later attributed to a suspected heart attack.
The investigation remains open. The lawyer has asked for patience until the autopsy report is released, after which the public will be informed. For now, the Turkish entertainment world is left mourning a performer who died just as she entered her mid-thirties.
