The young aristocrat Roushdy Abaza, who was born on 3 August 1926 to an Egyptian father and an Italian mother, sought adventure by entering the realm of acting in the 1940s.
In every year since the end of WWII, a new star emerged in Egyptian Cinema; (...)
Thirteen years have passed since the departure of the biggest and most important figure not only in Egyptian cinema but the history of Arab cinema. Youssef Chahine died 27 July 2008 at the age of 82 after a life full of clamour and spectacular (...)
“I was born on horseback!” Ahmed Mazhar used to say to his friends and the media. When asked to explain this statement, he answered laughingly that his mother loved horse riding and that she felt labour pains whilst she was riding a horse, so she (...)
Prominent Egyptian film actor Fouad El-Mohandes, who died on 16 September 2006 at the age of 82, was one of Egypt's most popular film and theatre stars during the latter half of the 20th century.
In 2004, El-Mohandes won the State Appreciation Award (...)
In 1959, when Soad Hosny debuted in Hassan and Naima, directed by Helmy Barakat, it marked the fourth year after the retirement of the first box office starlet Leila Mourad with her last film, The Unknown Lover by Hassan El-Siefi.
During those four (...)
Please contemplate with me this title, which everyone agrees describes her perfectly.
They didn't call her “the star of the masses” or “a box office star” or any other common descriptors. Instead they call Faten Hamama, “the lady of the Arab silver (...)
Across the history of Arab art in the 20th century, you won't find a name that enjoyed such wide artistic and life experience as the one enjoyed by the composer and singer Mohamed Abdel-Wahab.
This man remained for almost 75 years -- since his (...)
Since the emergence of Egyptian cinema, most leading men come from either the stage such as Youssef Wahbi, Zaki Rostom and Serag Mounir or from the world of singing such as Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Abdel-Ghani El-Sayed and Ibrahim Hammouda. Even those (...)
Actor and filmmaker El-Sayed Bedeir (1915-1986) made great contributions to Egypt's cultural scene over a period of almost 60 years.
His efforts as an actor, writer and director in theatre, cinema, radio and television was so extensive that he was (...)
By the end of World War II in 1945, Egyptian cinema witnessed the biggest capital flow into film production in its history.
The number of films churned out during this period was a huge leap for Egyptian cinema and was accordingly accompanied by the (...)
Hoda Sultan is considered to be one of the brightest names in the history of both singing and acting in Egypt in the twentieth century.
Her birth name was Gamalat Bahiga Abdel-Aal Al-Haww and she was born in Kafr Abu-Gendy in El-Gharbiya governorate (...)
Ten years have passed since the departure of the biggest and most important figure not only in Egyptian cinema but the history of Arab cinema. Youssef Chahine died 27 July 2008 at the age of 82 after a life full of clamour and spectacular (...)
Throughout the history of Arab art, nobody has combined acting, writing, direction, production, management, and ownership of assets in the fields of both theatre and cinema -- except Youssef Wahbi.
There is no artistic field that Wahbi has left (...)
Until the end of the 1940s and early 1950s, Egyptian cinemagoers viewed those standing behind the camera, including directors, as just elements participating in the filmmaking and no more.
At the time, stardom, fame and the limelight was for those (...)
In the history of Arab actors there is a long list of names that have achieved widescale fame. Some of them reached stardom, but very few of those can be considered geniuses in their profession. One of the most prominent of those geniuses is Mahmoud (...)
Well-known director Henri Barakat came to film through some effort; a graduate of Cairo's law faculty, his family had intended him to be a lawyer. He instead travelled to France to study cinema.
Barakat, who was born in 1941, went on to direct 86 (...)
Mahmoud Shokoko didn't taste in his childhood the school life. Life was his school, as well as his father's carpentry workshop.
Regardless, Shokoko learned how to win over people's love and achieve sweeping fame unattained by others. He was the only (...)
Egyptian actor Mahmoud Morsi, who died in 24th April 2004, remained an enigma behind which lay a thick wall of genius in both choice and performance.
He strongly protected himself from the media's eyes, which he avoided almost totally throughout his (...)
When an actor or actress sticks to one type of role throughout most of their artistic life, only a powerful talent and dominating presence can save them from becoming redundant to audiences.
Perhaps the able actress Amina Rizk, born on 15 April (...)
Everything in the childhood of this dark-skinned young man, who was born on 18 November 1949, confirmed that his life path would not be easy.
After his father's premature death and his mother's marriage to another man, Ahmed Zaki was brought up in (...)
Across the history of Arab art in the 20th century, you won't find a name that enjoyed such wide artistic and life experience as the one enjoyed by the composer and singer Mohamed Abdel-Wahab.
This man remained for almost 75 years, since his (...)
Today we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the death of Egyptian actress Zeinat Sedki, who passed away on 2 March 1978.
Sedki began her artistic career as a belly dancer and stand-up comedienne before working as an actress in Naguib El-Rihani's (...)
In the entire history of Arab art, whether in the past or present, no artist has enjoyed the truly exceptional stature of the Star of the Orient and the grand dame of Arab singing – Umm Kalthoum.
I don't believe there will ever be an artist who can (...)
In 1959, when Soad Hosny debuted in Hassan and Naima, directed by Helmy Barakat, it marked the fourth year after the retirement of the first box office starlet Leila Mourad with her last film, The Unknown Lover by Hassan El-Siefi.
During those four (...)
Fourty-three years have passed since the death of the great musician Farid Al-Atrash on 26 December 1974, and his music is still thriving, bearing witness to the high stature that he enjoys among the Oriental-music geniuses of the twentieth (...)