Nadia Lutfi Passes Away at 83

Iconic actress, Nadia Lutfi has just passed away at the age of 83, after a struggle with illness.

Lutfi has been transferred days ago into the intensive care unit (ICU).

Later, she was transferred to a regular room after her health condition was stabilized.

The actress’s doctor had ordered her to be admitted again to the ICU inside Maadi Hospital after her health condition had somewhat declined.

Lutfi was on a respirator as she suffered shortness of breath as a result of some complications resulting from cold, as well as suffering from other symptoms.

It is worth mentioning that Paula Mohamed Mostafa Shafiq, known as Nadia Lutfi, is a retired Egyptian actress.

She was born on January 3, 1937, to an Egyptian father who was an accountant and an Egyptian mother.

In her prime, Lutfi was one of the most popular actresses during the final phase of Egyptian cinema’s “Golden Age”.

She started acting as a hobby; when she was 10 years old she participated in a play at her school and did very well.

When the 24-year-old was about to make her screen debut in 1958, the current “it couple” Omar Sharif and his wife, Egyptian superstar Faten Hamama had just had a smash hit with the film” La Anam” with Hamama as “Nadia Lotfy”, a willful teen who destroys her father’s marriage – a name which Young Paula fell in love with and decided that she would go by.

With her new name, the young actress was spotted by director Ramsis Naguib, and she took her first role in a modest, black and white drama, Soultan in 1958.

Her second film was in a smaller role in one of the film landmarks of its time, Cairo Station.

In 1963, she played a Frankish woman warrior of the Crusade era, who went into battle against her Christian-Arab lover, in the film “Naser Salah el Din” (occasionally shown in the US TV as “Saladin and the Great Crusades”).

She starred in several films with Soad Hosni, such as “Lil-Rigal Faqat” (for men only), and Al-Saba’ Banat (The Seven Girls).

In the 1970's, her career wound down as Egypt’s “Golden Age” for films came to a close. Having made close to 50 films in the first 11 years of her career, she only made three in the decade that followed and has not worked in film since 1981.