Soad Hosny

Soad Hosny
Soad Hosny Albaba c. 1979
Native name سعاد حسني البابا
Born Souad Muhammad Kamal Hosny
(1943-01-26)January 26, 1943
Cairo, Egypt
Died June 21, 2001(2001-06-21) (aged 58)
London, England, UK
Nationality Egyptian
Occupation Actress, singer

Soad Hosny (Arabic: سعاد حسنى‎  pronounced [soˈʕæːd ˈħosni]: January 26, 1943[1] – June 21, 2001) was an Egyptian[2] actress born in Cairo. She was known as the "Cinderella of Egyptian cinema" and one of the most influential actresses in the Middle East and the Arab world.[3] She ascended to stardom at the end of the 1950s, performing in more than 83 films between 1959 and 1991. A majority of her films were shot in the 1960s and 1970s. Her final screen appearance was in the 1991 film, The Shepherd and the Women, directed by her ex-husband, Ali Badrakhan.[4]

Early life and career

Soad Muhammad Kamal Hosny was born in Bulaq district in Cairo, Egypt. She's one of three sisters born to prominent calligrapher Mohammad Hosni, an ethnic Kurd from Syria who had settled in Cairo in around 1912, and his second wife, the Egyptian born, Gawhara.[5][6][7][8] She also had eight half-siblings from her father's first marriage. Her parents divorced and her mother remarried, to an Egyptian man, Abdul Monem Hafeez, with whom she had six more children, thus giving Soad and her two sisters no fewer than 14 half-siblings.[5] Najat Al Saghira, one of Hosny's half-siblings, was an actress and singer.[6] Hosny's final screen appearance was in 1991 in Al Ra'i We El Nissa.[4]

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 his children became performance artists. Soad's half-sister, Najat, became a singer and actress. Her half-brother, Ezz Eddin Hosni (1927 – 2013), was a music composer and taught his sister Najat music and singing. Another sibling, Sami Hosni became a cello player, jewellery designer and also calligrapher.[9] while yet another brother, Farooq, was a painter and his daughter Samira was also an actress.[10]

At the age of three, she began her career when she sang in the popular children's TV program, Papa Sharo. Her work included a wide range of genres - from light comedies and romances through to political satire.[11] Her most well-known role was that of a college student who fell in love with her professor in the film, Khali Balak min Zouzou [Take Care of Zouzou] (1974).[12] Other important film credits include the role of a student and political activist, who was tortured in Al-Karnak; based on the novel by Naguib Mahfouz. In the film, Shafika she tranformed 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.[13]

During her lifetime, she was known as the "cinderella of the screen". Due to illness, she retired from acting in the 1991.[14]

Personal life

Soad Hosny was married four times.[15] 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 to Zaki Fateen Abdel-Wahab, son of Fateen Abdel Wahab and Leila Mourad in 1981. This marriage lasted only five months.

Death

Stuart Tower in Westminster, England

On June 21, 2001, Soad Hosny died after falling from the balcony of her friend, Nadia Yousri's apartment in Stuart Tower building in London. Her death was surrounded in controversy, with authorities initially failing to provide details of how she fell; an omission that fuelled media speculation and rumours that her death may have been a suicide or murder, rather than accidental.[16] Soad's body was flown home to Cairo [15] and her funeral in Cairo was attended by some 10,000 people. She was buried in a family's plot of land on the outskirts of Cairo.[17] She had no children and was survived by her last husband, writer Maher Awad, whom she married in 1987.[18][19]

Latest

In 2013, Lebanese filmmaker Rania Stephan used snippets from Hosny's films to re-tell Hosny's story and the history of Egyptian cinema in The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosny. It was featured in Berlin's Art Week.[20]

Filmography

Bibliography

  • Ashraf Gharib,2001: "Soad Hosni: Al-Hulm Al-Dai' (Soad Hosni: The Lost Dream)"[21]
  • Mohamed Soweid,2004: " Cabaret Suad", Beirut: Dar al-Adab[22]

References

  1. ↑ "وثيقة مكتوبة : شهادة ميلاد سعاد حسني 1943 م". souad.banouta.net. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
  2. ↑ "Roa'ya Assar - بالمستندات الرسمية: سعاد حسني مصرية و وُلدت... | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
  3. ↑ "Egyptian Cinderella". Retrieved October 31, 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Egyptian screen star dies". BBC News. June 22, 2001. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  5. 1 2 Mayad Beloun. Profile, Alsharq Al Awsat (newspaper), (August 3, 2001), No. 8284.
  6. 1 2 Najat Al Saghira profile, najatalsaghira.wordpress.com; accessed July 4, 2015.
  7. ↑ Ahmad Al Samehi. Profile, Al Ahram, December 6, 2012, Issue No. 46021: "Brother of Najat Al Saghira and Soad Hosny: I taught singing to Najat"; accessed July 4, 2015. (in Arabic)
  8. ↑ "Mohammad Hosni the calligrapher", citytalks.co.uk, June 24, 2015; accessed July 10, 2015.
  9. ↑ , Al-Etihad [newspaper], UAE, "Obituary of Ezz- Eldin Hosni"
  10. ↑ Mohammad Qanawi, "Najat Al Saghira wins 'Al Owais' Prize", 4 December 2006, Issue No. 10233; accessed 26 January 2016.
  11. ↑ Ginsberg, T. and Lippard, C., Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema, Scarecrow Press, 2010, p. 181
  12. ↑ Ginsberg, T. and Lippard, C., Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema, Scarecrow Press, 2010, pp 181-182; It may be worth noting that this source repeats stories occasionally published in the Arabic media, that her father was cruel and denied her an education until age 16 years. Her brother, in a media interview, dismissed this and other rumours about his family life, promulgated by the Arabic media, stressing that he and his siblings were raised in a supportive and artistic household where their talents were nurtured. See: Al-Samahi, A., "Najat's small brother and Suad Hosni: I learned to survive singing", (Interview with composer, Ezzidin Hosny), Al Ahram, [Arabic newspaper in Egypt), 6 December, 2012, Issue No. 46021, , Online: (translated from Arabic)
  13. ↑ Ginsberg, T. and Lippard, C., Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema, Scarecrow Press, 2010, p. 181
  14. ↑ "Egyptians Mourn Screen Cinderella, BBC News, Online:
  15. 1 2 "Egyptians mourn screen Cinderella". BBC News. June 28, 2001. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  16. ↑ Ginsberg, T and Lippard, C., Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema Scarecrow Press, 2010, p. 182
  17. ↑ Soad Hosni funeral coverage, albayan.ae, June 29, 2001.
  18. ↑ Al Arabiya (Arabic TV channel, Dubai); "Husbands of screen Cinderella ..."; accessed June 23, 2011; accessed July 10, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Egyptians mourn screen Cinderella". 2001-06-28. Retrieved 2017-11-20.
  20. ↑ Rowan El Shimi, "Cinderella story of Egyptian cinema told through film on Soad Hosny", ahram.org.eg, September 25, 2013.
  21. ↑ "Return of Soad". Al-Ahram Weekly. November 11–17, 2001. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  22. ↑ "The cornflake predicament". Al-Ahram Weekly. June 16–22, 2005. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2012.

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