Huda Sultan

Huda Sultan was born on 15 August 1925 in the rural Egyptian city of Tanta to a higher class family. She was the third of five siblings; one of her brothers was the renowned artist Mohamed Fawzi.^[1] She was born as Bahiga Abd El-Aal, but later adopted her new acting name, Huda Sultan, after many suggestions from prominent Egyptian Cinema producers that her birth name was too rural.

In 1950 she starred in her first film "Set El Hosn" (Egyptian Arabic: ست الحسن, "The lady of beauty"); soon after, she married the Egyptian actor Farid Shawqi and the couple had formed a successful duo and acted together in numerous films as well with Egypt's leading actors such as: Salah Zulfikar, Rushdy Abaza and Shoukry Sarhan.^[2][3][4] Her most notable works are in the films; "El Fetewa" (Egyptian Arabic: الفتوة, "The Bully"), Ezz El-Dine Zulficar’s "Emra’a Fel Tareeq" (Arabic: إمرأة في الطريق, "A Woman in the Road") with Shoukry Sarhan and Rushdy Abaza, "Nessa Muharramat" (Egyptian Arabic: نساء محرمات, "Forbidden Women") with Salah Zulfikar.

 

In 1960, she starred "Serr Imra'a" (Egyptian Arabic: سر امرأة, “Woman's Secret”) with Salah Zulfikar and Emad Hamdy. In 1968, she appeared in “Thalath Nesaa” (Egyptian Arabic: ثلاث نساء, “Three Women”) with Salah Zulfikar, Shoukry Sarhan and Ahmed Ramzy. "Shaye' Fe Sadry" (Arabic: شئ في صدري, "Something in My Heart") with Rushdy Abaza. Also Youssef Chahine's "El Ekhtyar" (Egyptian Arabic: الإختيار, "The Choice") with Soad Hosny. In 1976, she co-starred in "Awdat Al Ibn Aldal" (Egyptian Arabic: عودة الابن الضال, "The Return of the Prodigal Son") with Shoukry Sarhan, and "El Wada'a Ya Banobart" (Egyptian Arabic: الوداع يا بونبارت, "Adieu Bonaparte") with Salah Zulfikar, Patrice Chéreau and Michel Piccoli. In 1986, Sultan starred in "Min Fadlik Wa Ihsanik" (Egyptian Arabic: من فضلك وإحسانك, "Please and Your Kindness") with Salah Zulfikar and Hesham Selim.^[5][6]

Sultan married five times: her first husband, Mohamed Naguib, was a prominent Egyptian government official who did not agree to his wife's celebrity status and divorced her soon after her first movie. Her second husband was an Egyptian movie producer, and her third husband was Fowad Al-Atrash (brother of singer Farid al-Atrash and Asmahan), she divorced him in order to marry leading actor Farid Shawqi.^[1] She then married director Hassan Abdel Salam.

Sultan had one daughter with her first husband, Mohamed Naguib, called Maha, and two daughters with her fourth husband Shawqi, one of them, Nahed, who is a movie producer. Her granddaughter is actress Nahed El Sebai^[1]

In 2006 she died, at the age of 81 years, after a battle with lung cancer, at Dar Al Fouad in 6th of October, Egypt.^[1][7]