Sanaa Gamil ( ar, سناء جميل), born Thoraya Youssef Atallah ( ar, ثريا يوسف عطالله) (April 27, 1930 – December 22, 2002), was an Egyptian

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

. Born to a Coptic Orthodox family in

Minya Governorate Minya Governorate ( ar, محافظة المنيا ') is one of the governorates of Egypt, governorates of Upper Egypt. Its capital city, Minya, Egypt, Minya, is located on the left bank of the Nile River. Etymology The name originates from the c ...

, she moved to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

to pursue her acting career and changed her name to Sanaa Gamil. One of her most notable roles was ''Nefisah'' in front of

Omar Sharif Omar Sharif ( ar, عمر الشريف ; born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub , 10 April 193210 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as one of his country's greatest male film stars. He began his career in his native country in the ...

in the movie '' Bidaya wa nihaya'' (''A Beginning and an End'') directed by

Salah Abouseif Salah Abu Seif ( ar, صلاح أبو سيف, ) (May 10, 1915 – June 23, 1996) was one of the most famous Egyptian film directors, and is considered to be the godfather of Neorealist cinema in Egyptian cinema. Many of the 41 films he dire ...

in 1960. The movie was based on a novel with the same name by the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

winner

Naguib Mahfouz Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha ( arz, نجيب محفوظ عبد العزيز ابراهيم احمد الباشا, ; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. M ...

. Sanaa Gamil won the best supporting actress award at the

Moscow Film Festival The Moscow International Film Festival (russian: Моско́вский междунаро́дный кинофестива́ль, translit. ''Moskóvskiy myezhdunaródniy kinofyestivál''; abbreviated as MIFF) is the film festival first h ...

in 1961 for her role in this movie.Al Ahram weekely article on Sanaa Gamil
She had four of her films voted for by critics and featured among " the 100 best ever made Egyptian films in the 20th century" list back in 1996. Not only a movie actress, but more importantly one of the best Egyptian theater actresses. She has also played a number of roles on the French Stage for the

Comédie-Française The Comédie-Française () or Théâtre-Français () is one of the few state theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real ...

. She was married to the famous Egyptian journalist Louis Greiss and had no children. She also acted in a number of TV series such as ''Ta'er EL Bahr'' (''Sea Bird'') with

Salah Zulfikar Salah El Din Ahmed Mourad Zulfikar ( ar, صلاح ذو الفقار; ; 18 January 1926 – 22 December 1993) was an Egyptian actor and film producer. He started his career as a police officer in the Egyptian National Police, before becoming an ac ...

in 1972 and ''Oyoun'' (''Eyes'') with Fouad el-Mohandes in 1980, and in a number of plays such as ''The Visit'' (''El-Zeyara'') with Gamil Ratib. In 2016 the Egyptian director Rogina Bassaly روجينا بسالي,روجينا بسالي made a documentary film about her, It's "Sana's Tale" "حكاية سناء".https://elcinema.com/work/2060718/

Filmography

*Edhak el soura tetlaa helwa (1998) *Dame du Caire, La (1992) ... aka The Woman from Cairo (International: English title: informal literal title) *Hekmatak ya rab (1976) .... Om Naima *Zawja al-thaniya, al- (1967) .... Wife ... aka The Second Wife *Fagr Yom gedid (1964) ... aka Dawn of a New Day *Bidaya wa nihaya (1960) ... aka Dead Among the Living ... aka The Beginning and the End *Abid el mal (1953) ... aka Slaves of Money (International: English title) *Ana bint min? (1953) ... aka Whose Daughter Am I? (International: English title)

Partial filmography

* Bidaya wa nihaya * Edhak el Sora Tetlaa Helwa * Sawaq El Hanem * Hekmatak ya rab * Elzouga Elthaneya

References

External links

*
Bidaya wa nihaya on IMDB
*https://elcinema.com/work/2060718/
Sanaa Gamil
at ElCinema 1930 births 2002 deaths Egyptian film actresses Egyptian comedians Egyptian people of Coptic descent Coptic Orthodox Christians from Egypt Egyptian television actresses Egyptian stage actresses 20th-century comedians {{Egypt-actor-stub

Filmography

Partial filmography

See also

References

External links