Shadia

 Shadia (February 8, 1931 - November 28, 2017), an Egyptian actress and singer, is considered the most important artist in the history of Egyptian cinema, and the critics and audience nicknamed her the "Blood of Cinema". Six of her films were selected in the list of the 100 best films in the history of Egyptian cinema.

about her life

Her father, agricultural engineer Ahmed Kamal Shaker, chose the name "Fatima" for her. She was known in the cinema as Shadia, and opinions differed as to the reason for her name. There is an opinion that says that producer and director Helmy Rafla is the one who chose the name Shadia for her as her artistic name, after she presented the movie Mind on Vacation with him, and there are those who say that actor Youssef Wehbe is the one who called her Her name when he saw her and he was filming at that time his movie Shadia Al Wadi, and there is a saying that the artist Abdel Wareth Asser is the one who called her Shadia because when he heard her voice for the first time he said: "She is Shadia of words." However, Shadia mentioned in an interview with the Egyptian radio in 1963 that she was the one who chose the name Shadia for herself, during the preparation period for filming the movie “The Mind is on Vacation,” even though her nickname in the decade was “Huda,” which she did not like at the time, and that director Helmy Rafla. He had agreed with her to choose the name Shadia strongly.

During a period of nearly forty years, she presented about 112 films and 10 radio and one theatrical series.

She was born in the New Helmiya area in the Abdeen neighborhood. Her father, the engineer Ahmed Kamal, was one of the important agricultural and irrigation engineers and a supervisor of the royal private lands, where his work at that time, i.e. at the beginning of the twentieth century, called for his presence in the heart of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, steps away from Abdeen Palace.

her family life

She has a brother named Afaf who worked as an actress but did not last long. She married three times and did not have children. The second marriage was with the engineer "Aziz Fathi" and the first with the artist Imad Hamdi for three years. She also married the artist Salah Zulficar, but she separated from him in 1969.

her artistic life

Her artistic career began in 1947 until 1984, during which she presented a large number of films, series, plays and radio works.

its beginning

Its beginning came at the hands of director Ahmed Badrakhan, who was looking for new faces, so she performed and sang and won the admiration of everyone who was in Studio Misr, except this project was stopped and not completed, but at this time she played a small role in the movie Flowers and Thorns and then Ahmed Badrakhan nominated her Helmy Rafla to star in front of Mohamed Fawzy in the first movie he produced, the first movie of her starring, and the first film directed by Helmy Rafla The Mind is on Vacation. The owner of the money, the daughters of Eve.

Producer Anwar Wagdy achieved high successes and revenues in the films Laylat Al-Eid in 1949 and Laylat Al-Henna in 1951. Her successes continued in her light roles and her duet with Kamal El-Shennawy, which achieved great successes and revenues for the producers. In the words of Kamal El-Shenawy himself, “The revenue of a girl who built buildings and roamed the lands” and we mention the dove of peace. In 1947, the sky, the soul, the body, and an hour for your heart were amended in 1948, and people wronged me in 1950. She remained the first star of the window for more than a quarter of a century, as the writer Saad El-Din Tawfiq asserts in his book The History of Arab Cinema. In the films “I complain to Maine” in 1951, “Stronger than love” in 1954, and “Have mercy on my love” in 1959.

Shadia Al-Fareq's rise came when she participated in the film The Unknown Woman by Mahmoud Zulficar in 1959, when she was 28 years old. The other shift in her life was through her films with Salah Zulficar, which brought out her comedic energies in the movie My Woman, General Manager in 1966, and the dignity of my wife in 1967 and in the movie “My Woman’s Imprisonment” in 1968. They also presented a movie More Expensive than My Life in 1965, which is one of the works of the artist Mahmoud Zulficar. Romance, through which they presented the characters of Ahmed and Mona as the most famous lovers in Egyptian cinema. She preceded these films with a film that is considered one of her best films, and her debut was with drama, while she was still a young age, with the film I am Love in 1954, and her works continued, most of which witnessed a good public reception, and the Egyptian cinema also through The novels of the writer Naguib Mahfouz in the movie The Thief and the Dogs and Al Midaq Alley and the Road and in 1969 Miramar presented something of fear, and the movie We Don’t Plant Thorns in 1970 and continued her work in the seventies and eighties of the twentieth century until she concluded her artistic career with the movie Do not ask me who I am with the artist Madiha Yousri in 1984.

I stood for the first time on stage to present the play Raya and Sakina with Suhair Al-Babli, Abdel Moneim Madbouly, Hussein Kamal and Bahjat Qamar for 3 years in Egypt and the Arab countries.

Shadia retired when she completed her fiftieth year, and she died on Tuesday, November 28, 2017, corresponding to Rabi’ al-Awwal 10, 1439 AH, at the age of 86, after a struggle with illness.