Egyptian actor Hassan Hosny dies at 89

The actor Hassan Hosny, one of the icons of the Egyptian comedy, died Saturday at the age of 89 in Cairo, announced the national union of the actors.

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"He was admitted to hospital the day before yesterday (Thursday) and then died of a heart attack yesterday night (Friday to Saturday)," said Achraf Zaki, president of the union.

An icon of Egyptian comedy with a long career

In nearly 60 years of career, Hassan Hosny has appeared in hundreds of plays, films and soap operas, the last of which was broadcast during the month of Ramadan 2020, the flagship season of family comedies.

Although he has always played secondary roles, Hassan Hosni has become, over the years, one of the emblematic faces of Egyptian comedy throughout the Arab world.

From the late 1990s, he participated, as a producer in particular, in the emergence of a new generation of actors (Ahmed Helmi, Mohamed al-Henedi, Mohamed Saad and Ramez Galal, among others) who are today among the big names in the Egyptian cinematographic and audiovisual landscape.