An exceptional case created by Soad Hosni for herself, with which she was able to immortalize her name in the history of Egyptian cinema. Sometimes she is a naughty teenage girl, and at other times she is a blatantly feminine woman. Despite that, her soul retained an innocent childhood. She excelled in acting, excelled in singing, and was distinguished by her ability to dance and show, captivating the hearts of the masses with her delicate features, remarkable grace, and attractive presence. She is known as “Cinderella” and “Sister of the Moon.” She lived a life full of mysterious situations and mysteries, and she wanted her death to be one of those mysteries that have not been revealed until today. On the anniversary of Cinderella’s birth, Soad Hosni, we recall with your situations from her artistic and personal life.
Her birth and Early Life
Her full name is Soad Muhammad Kamal Hosni al-Baba. She was born in the Bulak neighborhood of Cairo, on January 26, 1943. A father and a mother of Levantine origins. Her father is a calligrapher from the city of Damascus. He moved with his father to Egypt in 1912, at the invitation of King Farouk, to take over the management of the Royal Institute of Arabic Calligraphy. As for her mother, her name is Jawhara Muhammad Hassan Saffour, an Egyptian whose origins go back to the city of Homs. Soad Hosni had 16 brothers and sisters, of whom only two sisters, 8 brothers and sisters to her father, and 6 brothers and sisters to her mother. Soad Hosni descended from an artistic family, as she is the sister of singer Najat Al Saghira and composer Ezz El Din Hosni. She was found by the Syrian singer Hosni al-Baba, and her uncle, the comedian Anwar al-Baba, who was famous for playing a female character of a Levantine woman called “Umm Kamel” in many films and plays.
Early Works
Soad Hosni started her artistic career since she was a child, where she participated in the famous children’s radio program “Baba Sharo” and was famous for the song “Sister of the Moon”. However, her real artistic beginning came by chance, when she was met by the great poet and writer Abdel Rahman Al-Khamisi, who was a family friend. He recruited her in the play “Hamlet” by the world writer Shakespeare. Then he nominated her for her first role with the great director Henry Barakat in the movie “Hassan and Naima” in 1959, which wrote her artistic birth certificate.
Her film career
During her artistic career that spanned more than 30 years, Soad Hosni presented 91 films. She is famous for presenting the character of the naughty, light-hearted girl. She also possessed many artistic elements besides acting, as she excelled in another artistic genre, which is singing and showing, so she presented with the artist Rushdi Abaza the movie “Small on Love” in 1966, which he co-starred with 11 other films: “H 3, the little witch, the road, the ambassador’s side, the lovers’ weeping, the naughtiness of a man, the students’ apartment, Papa wants this, sunset and sunrise, lost love, where is my mind.” She also participated with the artist Ahmed Zaki in the movie “Shafiqa and Metwally” in 1979, “A Dinner Date” in 1981, “The Third Degree” in 1988 and “The Shepherd and Women” in 1991, as well as her only television series “He and She” in 1985. She also starred with the artist Hussein Fahmy in the films “Take care of Zozo” in 1972 and “Ameera My Love Anna” in 1974. She presented with Adel Imam the movie “The Suspect” in 1981, and the movie “Love in the Dungeon” in 1983, and also participated in the films “Tales 3 Girls, Sweet and Naughty, Showgirl”. We cannot forget her creativity in films such as: A rumor of love, the seven girls, the Zizi family, for men only, Karnak, the three love her, the well of deprivation, a stranger in my house, a bit of torment.
List of the 100 best films in the history of Egyptian cinema
Soad Hosni came in second place among the most actresses whose works were selected in the list of the 100 best films in the history of Egyptian cinema, after the artist Fatten Hamama. The balance of Cinderella from the films selected was 9 films, which are:
The movie “The Second Wife”, produced in 1967. And co-starring Sanaa Jamil, Shukri Sarhan and Salah Mansour. It was directed by Salah Abu Seif. It occupies number 16 on the list.
The movie “Cairo 30”, produced in 1966. co-starring Ahmed Mazhar and Youssef Wahba. It was directed by Salah Abu Seif. It occupies number 18 on the list.
The movie “My Wife and the Dog” produced in 1971. co-starring Mahmoud Morsi, Nour El-Sharif and Zizi Mustafa. It was directed by Saeed Marzouk. It occupies number 33 on the list.
The movie “People of the Summit”, produced in 1981. co-starring Nour Sharif, Omar Hariri and Izzat Al-Alayli. It was directed by on me Badrakhan. It occupies number 37 on the list.
The movie “Al-Karnak”, produced in 1975. And co-starring Salah Zulfiqar, Farid Shawqi, Kamal El-Shennawy, Nour El-Sharif and Mohamed Sobhi. It was directed by on me Badrakhan. It occupies number 39 on the list.
The movie “On Whom We Shoot”, produced in 1975. co-starring Mahmoud Yassin, And Izzat Al-Alayli. It was directed by Kamal Sheikh. It occupies number 46 on the list.
The movie “The Choice”, produced in 1970. Co-starring Youssef Wehbe and Izzat Al-Alayli. It was directed by Youssef Chahine. It occupies number 53 on the list.
The movie “sunset and sunrise”, produced in 1970. co-starring Salah Zulfiqar, Farid Shawqi, Kamal El-Shennawy, Nour El-Sharif and Mohamed Sobhi. It was directed by Kamal Sheikh. It occupies number 59 on the list.
The movie “Take care of Zuzu”, produced in 1972. It is co-starring Hussein Fahmy, Tahia Karioka, Shafiq Galal and Samir Ghanem. It was directed by Hassan Imam. It occupies number 79 on the list.
Awards and Honors
Soad Hosni won many awards and honors during her artistic career, and won the second place as the best actress in the twentieth century, after the artist Faten Hamama. It was also honored by President Anwar Sadat in 1979 in the celebrations of the Art Day. Among the most important awards it received:
- Best Actor Award from the Egyptian Society of Cinematography in 1971 for the movie “The Third Man”.
- Award from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture 5 times for the films The Second Wife, Sunrise and Sunrise, where is My Mind, Karnak, Shafiqa and Metwally.
- Best Actress Award from the Egyptian Film Association 5 times for her roles in the films Where’s my mind, Karnak, Shafiqa and Metwally, Dinner Date, Love in the Dungeon.
- Prize from the Alexandria Festival for the Shepherd and Women film.
- Best Actor Award from the Egyptian Society of Cinematography in 1995 for the movie
- Best Actress Award from the Egyptian Ministry of Information in 1987 in the Television Festival for her role in the series He and She .
Her marriage
It was known that Soad Hosni pledged her marriages, which amounted to 5 marriages. The first of these is an officially unconfirmed marriage to the artist Abdel Halim Hafez. A large number of journalists, including Mufid Fawzi, as well as some family members such as Janjah Abdel Moneim, the half-sister of Soad Hosni, confirmed that they had a common-law marriage, and their marriage lasted for 6 years, when they separated in 1965. One year after her separation from Abdel Halim, she got married and Soad Hosni married photographer and director Salah Karim for two years, when they divorced in 1968. The third marriage was with director Ali Badrakhan, in 1970, and her marriage to him lasted for 11 years, until they separated in 1981. In the same year, Souad Hosni married the artist Zaki Fateen Abdel Wahab, who was more than 15 years younger than her. But their marriage lasted only 5 months, due to the opposition of his mother, artist Laila Mourad. As for Soad Hosni’s last marriage, she was in 1987 with screenwriter Maher Awad, to whom she remained married until her death in 2001. Despite her multiple marriages, Soad Hosni did not have any children.
Cinderella and Nightingale quarrels
Despite the many rumors about Soad Hosni’s relationship with the artist Eid Halim Hafez, they only shared one artwork together at the beginning of her artistic career, which is the movie “Girls and Summer” in 1960, in which she embodied the role of his sister.
Cinderella stated in one of her television interviews that Abdel Halim offered her to participate in the movie “My Father Over the Tree”, but she did not accept the role and felt that it did not suit her and preferred to be played by another artist. She added that there was no suitable work to bring them together, until 1972 came and there was a movie being prepared for it, bringing together Soad Hosni, Abdel Halim Hafez and Faten Hamama, but its filming was postponed due to Nightingale disease and in the end it was not implemented.
Abdel Halim Hafez also nominated her for the lead role in the movie “Sins”, and Souad accepted the role, agreed with the director and received the deposit, and began preparing to film her scenes. So newspapers and art magazines spread rumors about the existence of a love story between the Nightingale and Cinderella, and that they are preparing for their wedding soon. This angered Abdel Halim, and he even contacted the journalists, asking them to quickly publish a denial of the news. However, his reaction angered Souad and was disturbed by his denial of the news in this way, so she resolved to withdraw from the film a few days before the start of filming. When Abdel Halim tried to contact her to understand what had happened, she refused to communicate with him, which caused the anger of Abdel Halim, who rushed to search for another actress, and his choice fell on Nadia Lutfi.
It seems that Soad Hosni did not just apologize for the movie “Sins”, but decided to take revenge on Abdel Halim Hafez in another way. When Al-Andalib contracted in 1972 on the radio series “Please Don’t Understand Me Quickly”, he nominated Soad Hosni to star in the series, and called himself to tell her about it. Souad announced her initial approval and requested that he send her the story. Abdel Halim thought that she would not refuse to work, so he quickly announced the news in a radio interview, and the newspapers covered the news. However, Cinderella apologized at the last moment on the pretext of her many cinematic concerns.
Her journey with illness
In the eighties, Soad Hosni suffered from erosion in the sacral and lumbar vertebrae, which caused pressure on the blood vessels and rupture of the arteries. She traveled abroad for surgery to install a metal plate in the two vertebrae. After the surgery, she contracted a viral infection of the seventh nerve supplying the right half of the face, which led to partial paralysis of the face. Which necessitated her treatment with cortisone, which caused her to gain a large amount of weight, which affected her psychological state and caused her depression for many years.
The mystery of her death
In the last period of her life, Souad Hosni was living in the British capital, London, where she received treatment and kept away from appearing in front of her fans with her new look, after she lost her usual grace and increased her weight dramatically. At this time, she was recording an audio recording of the quatrains of the poet Salah Jaheen, who had a strong friendship that spanned for many years.
On June 21, 2001, Soad Hosni died at the age of 58, after falling from the balcony of her sixth-floor apartment. The news of her death sparked a state of controversy and confusion that continues to this day, as gossip differed about the cause of her death. There are those who said that it was a natural death as a result of her imbalance after taking some medications, which led to her falling from the balcony. While some addressed rumors that she committed suicide as a result of the depression that she suffered from for a long time. While the finger pointed at more than one party or person who might have killed her. Her family and close friends confirmed that Soad Hosni’s personality is far from contemplating suicide, especially as she was preparing to break out of her isolation and return to Egypt and participate in new works of art. The mystery of her death is still uncovered, and the question is renewed every period about the fact of her death, and whether it was natural, suicide or murder.