Egyptian artistic community have come together in mourning over the multi-skilled artist Ezzat Abou Ouf who passed away early Monday at a private hospital in Cairo, after a long struggle with heart and liver diseases. "The chain of Egyptian creative artists have lost one of its circles," stated Culture minister Enes Abdel-Dayem adding that "his creation in music and drama has expressed the ambitions and dreams of a whole generation."
The mourning included the Actor Syndicate, the Cinema Center and many other national and private entities in addition to tens of star actors, singers and artists, with some stated very emotional consolation words.
Born on 21 August 1948, the son of renowned musician Ahmed Shafik Abou Ouf, has showed his passion for music and arts at an early age, and despite graduating from the faculty of medicine he went towards his passions, establishing a number of independent music bands as a keyboardists, composer, arranger and vocalist.
He quickly showed signs of success, collaborating with now-legendary musicians including pianist Omar Khairat who played drums for Les Petits Chats, before Ezzat established his smash hit band The 4M in the late 70s early 80s.
Together with the 4M, named after the initial letter of his four sisters, Ezzat gained big fame locally and across the Arab region after releasing a few albums covering traditional songs as well as creating unforgettable originals like El-Wala Dah and La Agbak Keda Wala Keda in addition to their kids record-breaking album Dabdouba El-Tekhienah. With his unique sound, being one of the very first few who used a synthesizer in Egypt, the talented producer became highly requested for TV scoring. He made his fame with his unforgettable soundtrack for the 1977's TV series 'Hekayet Mizo', of Samir Ghanem and Esa'ad Yunis that is still trending on social media today.
He also produced music for theater like in 1979's 'El-Dokhould Bel-Malabes El-Rasmeya, for cinema like 1981's 'El-Qefl' and 1985's 'El-Magnouna'.
It didn't take him long before he decided to turn towards acting and with a flourishing career he starred and assisted in hundreds of films, TV series, and theatre plays acting with almost all the first class stars and directors of his time.
Abou Ouf appeared with them all, from Adel Emam, Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz, Ahmed Zaki, Nour El-Sheri and Yehia El-Fakharany to Amr Diab, Mohamed Fouad, Mohamed Henedy, Tamer Hosni, Ahmed El-Sakka, Aser Yasin, Ahmed Helmy , Ahmed Mekky Aser Yassin and Amir Kararah, to name a few stars.
Ezzat Abou Ouf proved mastery in playing any type of rule, either comedy, tragedy or action fitting in any character; either a protagonist or antagonist, aristocratic or wretch, funny or silly, playing each with very extraordinary proficiency. He even played himself in a few films.
To name some of his legendary films; Ice Cream in Gleam (1992), Bakhit wa Adeela 1 and 2 (1994 and 1997), Ismailia Rayeh Gai (1997), Edhak El-Sora Tetla Helwa (1998), Asrar El-Banat (2001), Matab Sena'y (2006), Hassan W-Morqos trilogy (2008, 2009 and 2012), La Tarago' Wala Esteslam (2010) Les Petits Chats (2016) and Horob Edterary (2017). Moreover, he introduced a number of successful TV shows as a presenter including one of the oldest talk shows of the region; Al Qahera Al Youm convincing the audience in commenting on politics, sports, arts and even cooking and women shows.
With his last appearance on a Ramadan TV commercial accompanying pop icon Amr Diab, the star was currently working on Tamer Hosni's new film ‘Kol Sana Wenta Tayeb'.
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