Tinka Kurti
Tinka Kurti (born Tinka Ded Thani on 17 December 1932) is an Albanian actress with a career spanning more than 60 years. She has acted in over 50 films and more than 150 theatre plays and was awarded the title People’s Artist of Albania.
She was born in Sarajevo to an Albanian father and a Hungarian mother and was the oldest of four children. Her family moved to Shkodra, Albania, where she spent most of her life and began acting. In 1947 she was expelled from the School of Arts in Tirana but kept pursuing acting. Her first theatre appearance was at age 16 in Dasma Shkodrane (Wedding from Shkodra). From 1949 she was a member of Theatre Migjeni in Shkodra, appearing in more than 120 plays.
Kurti also pursued film. In 1958 she played the leading female role in Albania’s first feature film, Tana. She later starred in many notable films, including Mother Pashako in Yjet e netëve të gjata, the Mother in Çifti i lumtur, Sinjorina Mançini in Vajzat me kordele të kuqe, and Grandmother in Zemra e Nënës.
Two cinemas in Tirana and Durrës are named after her, as is the school in Lekbibaj. In 2003, Albanian director Esat Teliti made a documentary about her life titled “Tinka.”
Kurti married Palok Kurti in 1951; he died in 1997. They had a son, Zef Kurti, who died in 2018 in Canada at age 65. After his death she published a biographical book called “Diary of a husband.” In April 2025 it was reported that she lives in a nursing home in Tirana.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:31 (CET).