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Egypt Independent
Acclaimed Egyptian actor Mahmoud Yassin passed away on Wednesday morning, after a long struggle with illness at the age of 79.
His son Amr Mahmoud Yassin uploaded a picture of his father on Facebook with a caption: “My father, the actor Mahmoud Yassin, passed away. Please pray for him”.
Mahmoud Yassin was born in Port Said in 1941. He had been drawn to the theatre when attending middle school in Port Said, through the Theatre Club. At the time, his dream was to someday stand on the stage of the National Theatre.
He moved to Cairo to attend university and graduated from the Faculty of Law. However, he managed to fulfil his dream of joining the National Theatre.
He went on to perform in distinguished works such as ‘Layla wal Magnun’ (Laila and the Mad Man), ‘The Khedive’, “Hadath Fe October” (Happened in October), ‘Aoudat al-Ghaeib’ (The Return of the stanger), ‘al-Zeyara Entahat’ (The Visit has Ended), ‘Bedaya wa Nehaya’ (A Beginning and An End) and ‘al-Bahlawan’ (The Clown).
He played supporting roles in the cinema at the end of the sixties, until he had his cinematic breakthrough in ‘Nahno La Nazraa al-Shawk’ (We Don’t Sow Thorns) with actress and singer Shadia, in 1970.
Film roles kept rolling in. Among them were ‘al-Khait al-Rafea’ (The Thin Thread) with Faten Hamama, ‘Anf wa Thalath Oyoun’ (A Nose and Three Eyes) with Magda al-Sabahi, ‘Qaa al-Madina’ (Bottom of the City) with Nadia Lotfi, and ‘al-Batneya’ with Nadia al-Guindy and ‘al-Harafish’ with Safia al-Emari.
Even as he aged, Yassin continued to carve out his niche in cinema besides a younger generation in roles such as ‘Al-Jazeera’ (The Island) with Ahmed al-Sakka and ‘al-Waad’ (The Promise) with Asser Yassin.
