Egyptian and Arab cinema is commemorating the death anniversary of late Egyptian iconic actor Emad Hamdy who was born on November 24, 1909.
Today, Jan. 28 marks his 37th anniversary of his death at the age of 75 after a struggle with heart disease and blindness.
Hamdy is the most renowned name in the history of Egyptian cinema. He was born in Sohag governorate, Upper Egypt, along with his identical twin brother Abdel-Rahman.
His Upper Egyptian conservative family quickly moved to Cairo and resided in Shubra district, where Hamdy later graduated from the High School of Commerce.
According to the famous Egyptian actress Nadia el Genedy, Hamdy married four times; the first was an Egyptian belly dancer named Horreya Mohamed. The second was a monologist named Fatheya Sherif who is the mother of his son Nader.
After he married the veteran actress and singer Shadia, both paired a group of successful movies. His last marriage was to El Genedy who is the mother of his second son Hisham.
Although he didn’t show any artistic interests in his conservative early childhood, the young man joined the acting group in high school.
Hamdy then started frequenting Emad El-Deen Street, which was known as the Entertainment Street in Egypt, according to Hamdy's diary.
Charmed by famous comedian actor Naguib El-Rihani, he would regularly attend his plays as well as Youssef Wahbi's and Aziz Eid's.
At that moment, he realized that he was moving in a path that had never crossed his mind.
After his graduation, Hamdy and his brother opened a small commercial agency which they were obliged to close shortly after following its commercial failure.
Hamdy then worked different kinds of jobs while acting with some domestic theatrical companies, until he began to work at Studio Misr, the most important cinematic monument in Egypt at the time.
However, he didn’t work in the massive studio as an actor, but as an accountant, then production manager, and ultimately the studio’s distribution manager.
Furthermore, Hamdy took piano lessons and started to play famous music pieces for great musicians like Beethoven; but ultimately, he felt he should focus on his acting career more.
In 1945, the maven director Kamel El-Telmissany was looking for a new face with purely Egyptian features to play the leading role in The Black Market (1945), produced by Studio Misr.
Incidentally, he saw the face of the studio’s accountant and was attracted to his Egyptian countenance and handsomeness, which met the age’s standards.
Instantly, he chose him for the main role. However, the film was a big commercial failure and probably would have ended this young actor’s career.
In the following year, director Salah Abu-Seif chose him to play the leading role in Always in My Heart, with female lead Aqeela Rateb. Then came his lucky break in Darkness Fell (1948, Henri Barakat); putting Hamdi in the 'jeune premier' lineup, a position he retained for almost twenty years.
Hamdy began his successful cinematic career when he was 36 years old while his peers’ ages ranged between the twenties and the early thirties.
He is well-known for some of his seminal works, such as 'Sonia and the Madman' (1977, Hossam El-Din Mostafa) and 'Bamba Kasher' (1974, Hassan Al-Imam).
It's worth mentioning that his first role as a professional actor was in a documentary produced by the Ministry of Health pertaining to raising the public awareness about schistosomiasis.
Moreover, his first leading role was in “Al Souk Al Sawdaa” (The Black Market) in 1945, according to Elcinema.com.
It's important to mention that his unforgettable roles in this period in both 'Chitchat on the Nile' (1971, Hussein Kamal) adapted from Naguib Mafouz’s eponymous novel, and The Guilty (1976, Saeed Marzouk).
For the latter, he was awarded the international best actor prize in the first edition of the Cairo International Film Festival.
Hamdy's last film was The Bus Driver (1982, Atef El-Tayeb) before he passed away on 28 January 1984.
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