CAIRO, Aug 27 (SEE) – Kamal El-Shennawi, who was born on 26 December 1921 and died on 22 August 2011, entered the world of cinema with a background in arts.
After graduating from the oil department from the Faculty of Art Education at Cairo University, he worked briefly as an art teacher while also acquiring a musical aptitude during a short stint in a musical institute.
El-Shennawi broke into the Egyptian cinema scene as a fresh-faced 26-year-old, a perfect fit for the roles of the “jeune premier” or the young and handsome “Don Juan” in Egyptian cinema, along with other actors of his generation such as Emad Hamdy, Anwar Wagdi, and Yehia Chahine.
Although El-Shennawi was one of the names that defined the “white-collar” cinema star, along with Yehia Chahine, Emad Hamdy and Shukry Sarhan.
His noticeable films in the 60s were The Warm Nights (1961, Hassan Ramzi), The Impossible (1965, Hussein Kamal), which was adapted from Mostafa Mahmoud’s novel, and Nora (1967, Mahmoud Zulfikar) and finally ended with Zaza (2006, Ali Abdel-Khalek).
This was accompanied with his successful TV series including The Family and the People (2000, Mohammed Fadel) and For Security Reasons (2002).
Kamal El-Shennawi suffered from a series of health problems until his death in 22 August 2011 at the age of 90.
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