Faten Hamama
| Faten Hamama فاتن حمامة |
|
|---|---|
Hamama in 1950s
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|
| Born |
Faten Ahmed Hamama May 27, 1931 Mansoura, Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt |
| Died | January 17, 2015 (aged 83) Cairo, Egypt |
| Occupation | actress, producer, production manager, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1940–2001 |
| Spouse(s) |
Ezzel Dine Zulficar (1947–1954; divorced) Omar Sharif (1955–1974; divorced) Mohamed Abdel Wahab Mahmoud (1975-2015; her death) |
| Children | 2 |
Faten Hamama (Arabic: فاتن حمامة pronounced [ˈfæːten ħæˈmæːmæ]; May 27, 1931 – January 17, 2015) was an Egyptian film and television actress and producer.
She made her screen debut in 1939, when she was only seven years old. Her earliest roles were minor, but her activity and gradual success helped to establish her as a distinguished Egyptian actress. Eventually, and after many successful performances, she was able to achieve stardom. Revered as an icon in Egyptian and Middle Eastern cinema, Hamama substantially helped in improving the cinema industry in Egypt and emphasizing the importance of women in cinema and Egyptian society.
After a seven-year hiatus from acting, Hamama returned in 2000 in what was a much anticipated television miniseries, Wajh al-Qamar (وجه القمر, Face of the Moon). In 2000, she was selected as Star of the Century by the Egyptian Writers and Critics organization. In 2007, eight of the films she starred in were included in the top 100 films in the history of Egyptian cinema by the cinema committee of the Supreme Council of Culture in Cairo.
Faten Hamama was born in 1931 to a Muslim lower middle class family in Mansoura, Egypt (according to her birth certificate), but she claimed to have been born in the Abdeen quarter of Cairo. Her father, Ahmed Hamama, worked as a clerk in the Egyptian Ministry of Education and her mother was a housewife. She has an older brother, Muneer, a younger sister, Layla and a younger brother, Mazhar. Her aspiration for acting arose at an early age. Hamama said that she was influenced by Assia Dagher as a child. When she was six years old, her father took her to the theater to see an Assia Dagher film; when the audience clapped for Assia, she told her father she felt they were clapping for her.
When she won a children's beauty pageant in Egypt, her father sent her picture to the director Mohammed Karim who was looking for a young female child to play the role of a small girl with the famous actor and musician Mohamed Abdel Wahab in the film Yawm Said (يوم سعيد, Happy Day, 1939). After an audition, Abdel Wahab decided she was the one he was looking for. After her role in the film, people called her "Egypt's own Shirley Temple". The director liked her acting and was impressed with her so much that he signed a contract with her father. Four years later, she was chosen by Kareem for another role with Abdel Wahab 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). After her success, Hamama moved with her parents to Cairo and started her study at the High Institute of Acting in 1946.
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