Weeks after her pass away.. British ‘Independent’ remembers ‘Madiha Yousri’: Star from golden age of Egyptian cinema

The ‘Independent’ published a lengthy report on the late star Madiha Yousry, highlighting the most important phases of her life. The report refers to Yousri saying that she was chosen by Time magazine as one of the world’s 10 most beautiful women in the 1940s, she appeared in more than 90 films, many of which are considered classics.

Known as the “Brunette of the Nile”, Madiha Yousri starred in dozens of classic Egyptian films, as well a number of TV dramas in the course of a career spanning over half a century.

Yousri, whose real name was Ghanima Habib Khalil, was born on 3 December 1921 in Cairo to a Turkish father and Sudanese mother. She studied fine art before she was discovered by film director Mohammed Karim while sitting with her friends in historic cafe Groppi in downtown Cairo.

She said of the meeting: “I knew how my father, a traditional Middle Eastern man, would react. He would never agree to his daughter acting. Yet I listened attentively to Mohammed Karim and remember this meeting very well. He kept telling me that he thought I was the perfect girl to stand in front of Abdel Wahab because of my black eyes which encapsulate the Egyptian girl.”

She started her career when she was introduced to Egypt’s legendary composer and singer Mohamed Abdel Wahab and she landed her debut role, albeit a small one, in Mamnou’a Al-Hub (Forbidden Love, 1940), and again in Rossassa Fi Al-Qalb (A Bullet in the Heart, 1944), both directed by Karim.

Yousri went on to act with all four of Egypt’s leading musicians of the 20th century. As well as Abdel-Wahab, she appeared in films alongside Abdel-Halim Hafez, Mohamed Fawzi and Farid Al-Atrash. She and Faten Hamama, the late Egyptian film icon who made her debut as a child actor, are the only two actors to have appeared with all four of the aforementioned luminaries.

Time magazine chose Yousri as one of the world’s 10 most beautiful women in the 1940s; the decade in which Egypt firmly established itself as the capital of Arab cinema. Yousri was a significant member of the first generation of actors who contributed to the extraordinary development of Egyptian cinema and television.

Throughout her career, Yousri participated in around 90 films ranging from drama, to comedy, to romance and tragedy, in which her roles dealt with topics such as motherhood and maturity.

Yousri’s final cinema appearance came in 1994 in the film Al-Irhabi (The Terrorist) beside one of Egypt’s best-loved stars, Adel Imam.

Yousri was awarded Egypt’s State Medal of Creativity in 1963 by then-president Mohamed Anwar Sadat, and also recently received an honorary doctorate from the Egyptian Arts Academy.

Towards the end of her career, Yousri starred in several television series, usually in the role of the mother or grandmother, most notably as Khadiga Hanem in the celebrated series Hawaanem Garden City (The Ladies of Garden City, 1997). Qalby Younadik(My Heart Calls You) in 2004 was Yousri’s last television appearance.