Mary Queeny

Mary Queeny (Arabic: ماري كويني‎‎; 1913–2003) was an Egyptian actress and film producer.

She was born Mary Boutros Younis in 1913 to a Christian family in Lebanon. Her mother's cousin was Asaad Dagher, a writer and journalist at the Al-Ahram newspaper. In 1923 she moved to Cairo with her aunt, actress and film producer Assia Dagher. She took the name Mary Queeny when she was 12. She married Egyptian film actor and director Ahmed Galal in 1940. Their son is film director Nader Galal. Until her retirement in 1982, she produced all of the films he directed.

Queeny became a popular actor and producer in a pioneering age of Egyptian cinema. Her first role was in 1929 in the film Ghadat al-sahara (The Desert Beauty). She went on to star in all of her aunt's subsequent films. She appeared in 20 films and was among the first women in Egypt to appear on screen without a veil.

With her husband she founded Galal Films in 1942; in 1944 it became Gala Studios. During the Golden Age of Egyptian film, it was one of the five largest studios. In 1958 she established a film colour processing laboratory, which in 1963 she sold to the Misr Company, now Misr International, which was later acquired by Youssef Chahine and his niece, Marianne Khoury.

Queeny died on 23 November 2003 in Cairo of a heart attack. She was 90.

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