Soad Hosny

The Cinderella of the Screen: Egypt's iconic actress whose 83 films defined an era.

She starred in 83 films between 1959 and 1991 and was widely called the "Cinderella of the Screen"^[1][2] Soad Hosny, an Egyptian actress, was born on 26 January 1943 in the Bulaq district of Cairo.^[1][2]

Last updated 2026-09-30 from the source article.

Quick Facts

Other names: Cinderella of the Screen
Birth name: Soad Mohammad Kamal Hosny
Born: 26 January 1943
Birthplace: Bulaq, Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt
Died: 21 June 2001
Place of death: Westminster, London, England
Resting place: Cairo, Egypt
Occupation: Actress, singer

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Hosny's father, Mohammad Hosni, was a master calligrapher whose home attracted leading artists from across the Arab world.^[3][4][2] As a young teenager she lived with her half-sister Najat Al Saghira and then with her half-brother Ezz Eddin Hosni, a composer who taught her music and singing.^[4][2] Her stepfather was conservative and refused to send her to school.^[2] She began performing on a children's radio program before age seven, singing a song that included the line "I am Soad, sister to the moon"^[2]

She was married four times, including to director Ali Badrakhan for about eleven years, and her last husband was screenwriter Maher Awad.^[5][6][7] In the 1972 film Watch Out for Zouzou, directed by Hassan El Imam, she played a college student who falls in love with her professor, a role that is among her most recognized.^[8]

What the cited sources add

The BBC obituary states that her most famous role was in the 1974 film Khali Balak min Zouzou (also known as Take Care of Zouzou).^[9] The Najat Al Saghira profile notes that all but one of her 83 films were box-office successes, the exception being Third Class in 1988.^[2] The profile also records that in 2013 an Iraqi woman asked her husband for divorce after he insisted on naming their daughter Soad after the actress.^[2] An Al Jazeera piece reports that an Egyptian judge halted the inquiry into Hosny's death in March, following a complaint from her sister that alleged government involvement.^[10]

References

Wikipedia, "Soad Hosny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "وثيقة مكتوبة : شهادة ميلاد سعاد حسني 1943 م", souad.banouta.net; "Roa'ya Assar – بالمستندات الرسمية: سعاد حسنى مصريه و اتولدت... Facebook", www.facebook.com; "Egyptian Cinderella" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Najat Al Saghira profile, najatalsaghira.wordpress.com. Retrieved 4 July 2015.. facts only, no text reused. najatalsaghira.wordpress.com
Wikipedia, "Soad Hosny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "وثيقة مكتوبة : شهادة ميلاد سعاد حسني 1943 م", souad.banouta.net; Hammond, "Pop Culture in North Africa and the Middle East: Entertainment and Society around the World", Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 22 May 2017; Soad Hosny-SIS; Jalal, "Soad Hosny: Remembering the Cinderella of Arab cinema", The National; "سعاد", archive.aawsat.com; Mayad Beloun. Profile, Alsharq Al Awsat (newspaper), (3 August 2001), No. 8284. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Soad Hosny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Najat Al Saghira profile, najatalsaghira.wordpress.com. Retrieved 4 July 2015. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Soad Hosny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Egyptians mourn screen Cinderella", BBC News, 28 June 2001 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Soad Hosny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nassem Al-Kurd, "Soad Hosni: An Egyptian Cinderella of Kurdish Roots", n.d.; "Abdel Halim Hafez", A Bridge to Egypt, 17 August 2011. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Soad Hosny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Soad Hosni funeral coverage, albayan.Ae, 29 June 2001.; Al Arabiya (Arabic TV channel, Dubai); "Husbands of screen Cinderella ...". Retrieved 23 June 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2015.; "Egyptians mourn screen Cinderella", 28 June 2001 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Soad Hosny" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ginsberg, T. and Lippard, C., Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema, Scarecrow Press, 2010, pp 181–182; It may be worth noting that this source repeats (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
"Egyptian screen star dies", bbc.co.uk, 22 June 2001. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk
Goudsouzian, Tanya, "Death by balcony in Egypt", Al Jazeera, 1 June 2014. facts only, no text reused. aljazeera.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Soad Hosny (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.