Soad Hosny | |
|---|---|
| سعاد حسني | |
.jpg) Hosny in 1972 | |
| Born | Soad Mohammad Kamal Hosny (1943-01-26)26 January 1943 |
| Died | 21 June 2001(2001-06-21) (aged 58) Westminster,London, England |
| Burial place | Cairo, Egypt |
| Nationality | Egyptian |
| Other names | Cinderella of the Screen |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1959–2001 |
| Notable work | Full list |
| Spouses | |
| Father | Mohammad Hosni |
| Relatives | Nagat El-Sagheera (half-sister) |
Soad Mohammad Kamal Hosny (Arabic:سُعاد حسني,pronounced[soˈʕæːdˈħosni]; 26 January 1943 – 21 June 2001)[1] was an Egyptian actress.[2] She was known as the "Cinderella of the Screen" and one of the most influential actresses in theMiddle East and theArab world.[3] She is generally regarded as one ofEgypt's most iconic femaleperformers of the 20th-century, who played leading roles for many of the country's top directors, in a career spanning 83 films between 1959 and 1991, garnering several national and international accolades.
Born in theBoulaq district ofCairo to an artistic family. Her father isMohamed Hosni, who was one of the best Egyptiancalligraphers. She is the sister of the singerNagat El-Sagheera. She worked in theEgyptian Radio as a young child with Baba Sharo and was introduced for Film industry by Abdel Rahman El Khamisi. Her film debut wasHassan and Naima (1959), and she quickly rose to stardom at the end of the 1950s, performing in more than 83 films between 1959 and 1991 with nine films in the greatest 100 films in the history of Egyptian cinema.
A majority of her films were shot in the 1960s and 1970s. Her notable films include;Money and Women (1960),A Date at the Tower (1962),Too Young for Love (1966),Cairo 30 (1966),The Second Wife (1967),Sunset and Sunrise (1970),The Choice (1971),Those People of the Nile (1972),Where is My Mind? (1974),Amira, My Love (1974),Whom Should We Shoot? (1975),Karnak (1975),Shafika and Metwali (1979),People on the Top (1981),A Dinner Date (1981),Al Qadisiyya (1981),A Stranger in My House (1982),Love in a Jail Cell (1983) andThe Hunger (1986). Her 1972 filmWatch Out For Zouzou, is widely considered her most famous film, to the point that many people gave her the nickname “Zouzou", her character's name. Her final screen appearance was in the 1991 film,The Shepherd and the Women, directed by her ex-husbandAli Badrakhan.[4]
Soad Muhammad Kamal Hosny was born inBulaq district inCairo, Egypt, to,Mohammad Hosni, a renowned Egyptian calligrapher ofSyrian Kurdish descent;[1][5][6][7][8] and his second wife, Gawhara Mohamed Hassan Saffour, an Egyptian woman. Soad Hosny's sister has claimed that their mother was of Syrian and later Saudi origin. The accuracy of her sister's assertions has been subject to speculation.[9][10][11][12] Her parents divorced and her mother married Abdul Monem Hafeez with whom she had six more children, thus giving Soad and her two sisters no fewer than 14 half-siblings.[13]
Her father's household was known as "the artists' home" because leading artists from across the Arab world regularly visited Hosni's home in Cairo for tuition and social interaction with the master calligrapher. Her father, whose artistic output included the production of frames for the silent movies and book covers, was well known across the artistic community. A number of his children became performance artists. Soad's half-sister,Nagat, was an actress and singer.[14] Her half-brother,Ezz Eddin Hosni (1927–2013), was a composer and taught Soad and Najat music and singing. Another sibling, Sami Hosni, became a cello player, jewellery designer, andcalligrapher.[15] Yet another brother, Farooq, was a painter and his daughter Samira was also an actress.[16]
At the age of three, she began her career when she sang in the popular Egyptian children's TV program,Papa Sharo, hosted by prominent kids' shows presenter Mohamed Shaaban. Her work included a wide range of genres, from light comedies and romances through to political satire.[17] Her film debut was inHassan and Nayima (1959).[18] She is credited with acting in films with the most notable Egyptian film stars such asOmar Sharif,Salah Zulfikar,Rushdy Abaza, andShoukry Sarhan.
In the early 1960s, Hosny starred in;A Rumor of Love (1960) alongsideOmar Sharif andYoussef Wahbi. She also starred inMafish Tafahom (1961),El-Do' el-Khaft (1961),El-Saferia Aziza (1961) alongside Shoukry Sarhan. She was also paired withAhmed Mazhar inEl-garema el-Dahka (1963). Other important film credits include her role inHassan El-Imam'sMoney and Women (1960) opposite Salah Zulfikar, whom she was paired with for the second time inA Date at the Tower (1962) directed byEzz El-Dine Zulficar. In 1964, she starred alongsideNadia Lutfi inMahmoud Zulfikar'sFor Men Only, where she played a role of a girl disguised in a man's appearance to have the opportunity to work in an oil exploration project; the film was a box office hit. In 1966, she starred in 10 films includingMabka el-Oshak,His Excellency,The Ambassador,El-Talata Yhbonha andLeilat El Zefaf. In the same year, Hosny starred inToo Young for Love (1966) opposite Rushdy Abaza.
In 1970, she starred alongside Salah Zulfikar and Rushdy Abaza in the political filmSunset and Sunrise (1970) byKamal El Sheikh. She worked in two films directed byYoussef Chahine during her career, the first one beingThe Choice (1970), and the secondThose People of the Nile (1972) in which she was paired with Salah Zulfikar for the fourth time. One of her most well-known roles was that of a college student who fell in love with her professor inHassan El Imam’s filmWatch Out for ZouZou (1972).[19] In 1974, she starred inKamal El Sheikh'sWhom Should We Shoot? (1974) alongsideMahmoud Yassin, whom she shared the lead with inWhere is My Mind? (1974). Her next role was a student and political activist who was tortured inKarnak (1975), the film was based on the novel byNaguib Mahfouz.
In the filmsShafika and Metwali (1979) withAhmed Zaki andPeople on the Top (1981) withNour El-Sherif, she transformed the musical numbers into scathing satires which gave voice to the oppressed. For this and her other hard-hitting, politically relevant roles, she was seen as part of the intelligentsia.[17] She starred inA Dinner Date (1981), in which she played a dramatic role. She also starred inAl Qadisiyya (1981),The Suspect (1981),A Stranger in My House (1982),Love in a Jail Cell (1983) andThe Hunger (1986).
During her lifetime, she was known as the "Cinderella of the Screen". She starred in the films of every important Egyptian director during the 60s and 70s and played women in complex plots. In her later career, she played women who had been abused or victimized.[20] Due to illness and health issues, she retired from acting in 1991.[21] Hosny's final screen appearance was inThe Shepherd and the Women (1991).[4]
Soad Hosny was married four times.[22] Around 1968, she was married to cinematographer Salah Kurayyem; the marriage lasted for approximately one year. In 1970, Hosny was married to the Egyptian film director Ali Badrakhan; this marriage lasted for approximately eleven years. She was then married toZaki Fatin Abdel Wahab, son ofFateen Abdel Wahab andLeila Mourad in 1981. This marriage lasted only five months.[citation needed] Persistent rumors claim that her first marriage was to the actor and singer,Abdel Halim Hafez (1929–1977), popularly known as "Al Andaleeb al Asmar" [The Dark-skinned Nightingale], whom she is believed to have married in secret.[23] However, her family have denied the veracity of such rumors.[24]
She was romantically linked with various celebrities including the Egyptian film starAbdel Halim Hafez.[25] Despite never wearing a wedding dress in all her marriages, Hosni wore wedding dresses many times on screen through her films, and her first film husband was the Egyptian film starSalah Zulfikar inMoney and Women of 1960. The rumor of her marriage to Abdel Halim Hafez was not the first in her life. In late 1962, a rumor was spread in theEgyptian press about her marriage to Salah Zulfikar, who's one of his country's most iconic male performers of all time and was popularly known as "Fares al Ahlem" [Knight of the Dreams], while filming with Zulfikar inA Date at the Tower. Filming of the film scenes began in theCairo Tower, and the team continued for two weeks on board the shipAida inthe Mediterranean. After filming ended, the rumor of her marriage to Zulfikar spread in newspapers and magazines at the time. Zulfikar did not forget the nature of his previous work as a police officer and began with his sense of security to investigate the source of the rumor, to make sure that the lighting worker in the film crew was the owner of the rumor after a kiss was filmed between Zulfikar and Soad Hosny, where the kiss lasted for three minutes, until Zulfikar sensed it took them too long and told thecinematographer, "Stop", and so the worker built this rumor because of the shot, but this rumor was denied and later, the two film stars participated in more than one film together.[26] Her fourth and final marriage was to screen writer Maher Awad.[27]
On 21 June 2001, Soad Hosny died after falling from the balcony of her friend Nadia Yousri's apartment in Stuart Tower building inWestminster. Her death was surrounded by controversy, with authorities initially failing to provide details of how she fell; an omission that fueled media speculation and rumors that her death may have been a suicide or murder rather than accidental.[28] Soad's body was flown home toCairo[22] and her funeral there was attended by over 10,000 people. She was buried in a family's plot of land on the outskirts of Cairo.[29] She had no children and was survived by her last husband, writer Maher Awad, whom she married in 1987.[30][31]
Soad Hosny had won many awards, including the Best Actress Award from the National Festival in 1971, theMinistry of Culture Award for 5 times, the Egyptian Film Association Award for 5 times, theAlexandria International Film Festival best actress award, the Best Actress Award from the Cinema Art Association, and the Best Actress Award from the Ministry of Culture. Egyptian media in 1987, and a certificate of appreciation on Art Day in 1979 from PresidentAnwar Sadat. At the 1980 State Film Awards, Hosni won the Best Actress Award for the movieThe Savage.[32]
Soad Hosny has been considered as one of the most influential actresses in the Middle East and Arab World.[33] Highly regarded for her range, versatility, and ability to play a wide range of characters—from comedic and lighthearted roles to dramatic and tragic ones, captivating the audiences with her charm, which would earn her the nickname "Cinderella of the Screen".[34][35] Her fashion sense and style made her a fashion icon for many young girls during her time, and has been considered asex symbol.[36][37]
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In 2013, Lebanese filmmakerRania Stephan used snippets from Hosny's films to re-tell Hosny's story and the history of Egyptian cinema inThe Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni.[38] It was featured in Berlin's Art Week.[39] TheThree Disappearances is an important archive, which while following the chronology of Soad Hosny's career, simultaneously documents the costumes, sets and styles used from the 1950s to the 1990s, a period that marked the peak and decline ofEgyptian cinema.[40]
One of Hosny's songs, "I'm going down to the Square" became a popular "anthem" during the2011 Egyptian revolution.[40]
Soad Hosny's film career lasted for 32 years. She is an icon inEgyptian film industry. She was a film, stage, television, and radio actor. She appeared in more than 80 films, 1 play, 1 television miniseries, and several radio shows.[18]
