Soad Hosny (, ; 26 January 1943 – 21 June 2001) was an Egyptian actress born in Cairo. She was known as the "Cinderella of Egyptian cinema" and one of the most influential actresses in the Middle East and the Arab world. She ascended to stardom at the end of the 1950s, performing in more than 83 films between 1959 and 1991 with a credit of 9 films in the greatest 100 films in the history of Egyptian Cinema. 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. Early life Soad Muhammad Kamal Hosny was born in Bulaq district in Cairo, Egypt to Mohammad Hosni, a noted Islamic calligrapher, and his second wife, an Egyptian, Gawhara Mohamed Hassan. Her parents divorced and her mother remarried, to an Egyptian man, Abdul Monem Hafeez, with whom she had six more children, thus giving Soad and her two sisters no fewer than 14 half-siblings. Her father's household was known as "the artists' home" because leading artists from across the Arab world regularly visited Hosni's home in Cairo for tuition and social interaction with the master calligrapher. Her father, whose artistic output included the production of frames for the silent movies and book covers, was well known across the artistic community. A number of his children became performance artists. Soad's half-sister, Nagat, was an actress and singer. Her half-brother, Ezz Eddin Hosni (1927–2013), was a music composer and taught both Soad and Najat music and singing. Another sibling, Sami Hosni became a cello player, jewellery designer and also calligrapher. while yet another brother, Farooq, was a painter and his daughter Samira was also an actress. Career At the age of three, she began her career when she sang in the popular Egyptian children's TV program, Papa Sharo, a popular program hosted by prominent kids' shows presenter Mohamed Shaaban. Her work included a wide range of genres – from light comedies and romances through to political satire. Her film debut was in Hassan and Nayima (1959). She is credited with acting in films with the most notable Egyptian film stars such as Omar Sharif, Salah Zulfikar, Rushdy Abaza and Shoukry Sarhan. Her most well-known role was that of a college student who fell in love with her professor in the film, Hassan