Soad Mohamed Hosny (Arabic:سعاد محمد حسني) (January 26, 1943, in Ataba, Cairo, Egypt – June 21, 2001 in London) was a famous Egyptian actress.

Hosny was known as the "Cinderella" of Egyptian cinema and one of the most influential actresses in the artistic arena. She ascended to stardom in the end of the 1950s, performing in more than 83 films between 1959 and 1991 . A majority of her films were shot in the 1960s and 1970s.

Her final screen appearance was in the 1991 film The Shepherd and the Women, directed by her ex-husband Ali Badrakhan.

Career

Hosny started her career at a very young age, through singing Okht El Qamar (Sister of the Moon) in the famous radio children program Baba Sharo.

A family friend, Abdel Rahman el-Khamissy (a writer / director) discovered her acting talent and asked an Arabic language teacher at the time to give her singing lessons.

Abdel Rahman was screening for the film ‘Hassan We Na’ima’, and wanted to present Hosny as his new discovery in the role of Na’ima. The film was produced and directed by Henry Barakat.

Death

Hosny died in London, England in 2001. This occurred after she had suffered severely from an unknown illness for five years. Hosny had sought treatment in the UK after sustaining a spinal fracture which had forced her to leave Egypt.

In 2001, she was found on the sidewalk below the building in which she was living; she had fallen from the balcony of her apartment. Courts in England could not decide whether Hosny had committed suicide or had been killed by her care-taker. In 2002, however, British courts decided that the cause of Hosny's death had been a suicide, although substantial evidence suggested she had been murdered when she was found such as the hole that has been cut in the netting on the balcony. Prosecuters argued that a woman on the verge of suicide would not have been in the right state of mind to cut through steel netting. Also, while one slipper was still on her foot, the other was found in her bathroom suggesting she has been dragged to the balcony. Also, it has been noted that Hosny has recorded her diaries on tape in preparation for the publication of her biography. This is cited as a motive for murder as the tapes went missing after her death and also because they were said to contain material that would have hurt important public figures in Egypt. Also, Suad Hosni's death was the third in a series of Egyptian notable death; all had died in the same way. Hosny was under therapy for depression at the time. She died on Abdel Halim Hafez's birthday – one of the many people who influenced her on screen and in her real life. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.