There's no doubt that Barış Manço (born January 2, 1943) was one of the brightest, most talented, and successful performer-celebities in modern Turkish history. And he was also extremely civic-minded, naturally good-hearted, and universally well-loved. His (official) biography (both on and off-stage) reads like a heroic story-book character.
Born at the height of WW II, his parents named their new son 'Peace' (Barış) -- placing in him their hopes for the future. And, he seemed in one sense to lead a charmed life. Just consider this short-listing of his achievements and successes...
1) a seminal Turkish Anatolian-rock musician and writer/composer of more than 200 published pop-songs -- including Turkey's first-ever million-seller song-hit (the ballad Dağlar Dağlar; Mountains Mountains) in 1970. Which is an extraordinary record-sales achievement when you consider that, back in those days, the total Turkish population only numbered about 40 million souls -- not all of whom were pop-music fans, we hasten to add! (See Barış performing Dağlar Dağlar's simple haunting lyrics at left -- written as he made a lonely trek back from the far-eastern Turkish town of Keban all the way to Istanbul, by dolmuş! And click the speaker-icon to hear a song clip, also at left). By the way, Barış' compositions have been translated into Greek, Bulgarian, Arabic, Farsi, Japenese, Hebrew, French, English, and Flemish.
2) a successful film actor (with film credits such as Süper BabaAnne and Baba Bize Eversene)
3) a Photo-Novel star (shown at left in FotoRoman Jönü with heroine Güngör Bayrak -- a minor but beautiful actress of her day)
4) a prize-winning TV producer and presenter... His first successful family-oriented TV series 7'den 77'ye (From 7 to 77) which took Barış' Turkish audiences some 600,000 kilometers around the world, to more than 100 different locations, on 5 continents, during the series' ten-year span -- ran for 378 episodes, and broke all existing Turkish TV records. His second follow-on series, the enormously popular Adam Olacak Çocuk (Grow up to be somebody!), a children's quiz-show (on which he famously and easily got star-struck kids to eat spinach and drink milk on national TV), so dominated its TV time slot that Turkey seemed to 'go on break' every time the program went 'on air'.
5) a loving husband and dedicated family man -- he and his lovely, ever-supportive wife Lale (they married in 1980) had two handsome sons (Batıkan and Doğukan) and were frequently seen together in and out of the public-eye. Barış himself won the Father of the Year Award in 1995.
6) an esteemed 'unofficial' Turkish Ambassador -- who received more than 300 honorary awards at home and abroad...Barış was so popular with his Japanese fans and audiences that he seriously considered adopting Japan as his second homeland...
But, his life was far from charmed in another sense -- in that Barış was never free of nagging accident and health problems. Consider this disturbing chronology...
1) 1979 -- Barış a victim (along with Lale) of a serious auto accident, caused by a tire/tyre blow-out along a quiet country road, which totally demolished their car -- and left the two of them in plaster-casts for months.
2) 1985 -- Barış required an operation to relieve an unspecified internal organ problem.
3) 1982, 1991, 1999 -- Manco's weak heart-condition surfaced during a series of recurring heart attacks...
And then there are the 'facts' (and the hushed-up questions) that still haunt his mysterious death... One thing is certain. Manco died of heart failure sometime during the late night of 31 January or the early morning of 1 February 1999.
But... it's been devilishly rumored that the final fatal attack was induced as Barış experimented with Viagra -- while he was in the arms (it is further and more fantastically rumored) of his then-current young mistress cum groupie-lover.
Until the scandalous rumors surrounding his death, Manco's private life and reputation had never been tainted -- or even questioned. But, it seems rather likely now (as more and more facts have slowly come to light) that the attractive and enormously charismatic Barış had a long-standing semi-secret 'underground' love-life, about which his wife Lale was well aware.
Lale even implied as much (while being closely questioned by reporters about Barış' alleged mistress, subsequent to the disclosure of the viagra rumors after his death) -- when she said something to the effect that "Barış had many female admirers, and he himself was a man with affection to spare."
Note: The mini-article above is based on several sources but is especially reliant for graphical material on the Tempo Magazine -- Barış Manço Supplement, published February 1999.
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