Huda Sultan

Huda Sultan هـدى سلطان
Background information
Birth name	Bahiga Abd El Aal بهيجة عبد العال
Born	(1925-08-15)15 August 1925 Tanta, Egypt
Died	5 June 2006(2006-06-05) (aged 80) 6th of October, Giza, Egypt
Genres	Egyptian music
Occupations	Actress singer
Spouses	Mohamed Naguib ​ (divorced)​ [name unknown] ​ (divorced)​ Fowad Al-Atrash ​ (divorced)​ Farid Shawqi ​ (divorced)​ Hassan Abdel Salam

Huda Sultan or Hoda Sultan (Egyptian Arabic: هـدى سلطان, Birth name: Bahiga Abdel'al (Egyptian Arabic: بهيجه عبد العال), (15 August 1925 – 5 June 2006) was an Egyptian actress and singer. She was also one of the most awarded actress for her roles, especially in musicals in the black and white films where she played secondary and leading roles. Sultan performed in hundreds of films in Egyptian cinema in a 56-year career.

Early life

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. 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.

Career

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. 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.

Huda Sultan and Salah Zulfikar in a romantic scene from the 1959 film Forbidden Women.

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.

Personal life

Marriages

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. She then married director Hassan Abdel Salam.

Children

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

Death

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.