Table of Contents
Faten Hamama was born on May 27, 1932, and she was an Egyptian film and television actress and film producer. She was known to be the first wife of Ezz El-Dine Zulficar and in 1939, she made her debut on screen. She was seven years old at that time.
She played minor roles but her activity and gradual success helped to establish her as a distinguished Egyptian actress. She had an older brother called Mounir, a younger sister called Layla and a younger brother called Mazhar. She had the desire to become an actress when she was very young.
At age 6, her father made her watch an Assia Dagher film at the theater. Faten Hamama won a children’s beauty pageant in Egypt and her father sent her picture to the director Mohamed Karim. Mohamed Karim was then in search of a young female child to play a role in the film Youm Sai’d (يوم سعيد, A Happy Day, 1939).
She got the chance to play the role in the film and earned the nickname “Egypt’s own Shirley Temple” afterward.
Mohamed Karim signed a deal with Faten Hamama’s father and four years on, she played a role in the film titled in the film Rossassa Fel Qalb (رصاصة في القلب, Bullet in the Heart, 1944) and in another film two years later, Dunya (دنيا, Universe, 1946).
It is refreshing to note that in 1996, nine of the films she had featured in, were named in the Top 100 films in the history of Egyptian cinema by the cinema critics of Cairo International Film Festival.
For a brief period, Faten Hamama was not active in the acting fraternity but she made a comeback in 2000. She starred in the television series titled Wageh El Amar (وجه القمر, Face of the Moon). Faten Hamama was selected as Star of the Century by the Egyptian Writers and Critics organization in 2000. She studied at the High Institute of Acting in 1946.
Faten Hamama Cause of Death
Faten Hamama died on 17 January 2015, at the age of 83. The cause of her death has not been announced but it is known that she died after a short illness.
She was mourned by people in the film industry, government figures as well as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. A two-day period of mourning and a halt in all artistic activity was ordered by The Ministry of Culture. Thousands of mourners graced the funeral of Faten Hamama.
Personal life
Faten Hamama and director Ezz El-Dine Zulficar fell in love while shooting Abu Zayd al-Hilali (أبو زيد الهلالى) in 1947. They eventually got married.
Their marriage lasted for seven years and they divorced in 1954. They had one child, a daughter, Nadia Zulficar.
Subsequently, Faten Hamama fell in love with Omar Sharif and they got married. They starred in many films but divorced in 1974; They had a son together. She later married Mohamed Abdel Wahab Mahmoud, an Egyptian doctor.
Reference :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faten_Hamama
