Zubaida Tharwat

Zubaida was born in Alexandria, Egypt on 15 June 1940, into an Egyptian family. Her father, Ahmed Tharwat, was an Egyptian Navy officer. As a teenager, she won a beauty contest in an Egyptian teen magazine which widely published her photograph and got her the attention of directors and producers. She studied at the Faculty of Law, Alexandria University.

In 1955, after winning the beauty contest of El-Geel magazine, she made her first film appearance in the 1956 film Dalila, alongside Shadia and Abdel Halim Hafez. She went on to work in many other films with other famous actors such as; Youssef Wahbi, Salah Zulfikar, Rushdy Abaza, Kamal el-Shennawi, Soad Hosny and Omar Sharif.

Zubaida Tharwat with Salah Zulfikar in Inni Attahim (1960)

Tharwat appeared in the 1950s, 60's and 70's films, her notable roles include; Women in My Life (1957) by Fatin Abdel Wahab, The Little Angel (1957) with Youssef Wahbi and Yehia Chahine, Girl 17 (1958) with Ahmed Ramzy, Inni Attahim (1960) with Salah Zulfikar and directed by Hassan El-Imam. In 1961, she starred alongside Omar Sharif in There is a Man in our House (1961) by Henry Barakat. In the same year, she starred alongside Abdel Halim Hafez in Youm Min Omry (1961), the film was a huge success.

After seven years hiatus from films, from 1962 to 1969, she returned in A Jealous Wife (1969) by Helmy Rafla, followed by How to Get Rid of Your Wife (1969). Next year, she co-starred alongside Soad Hosny and Rushdy Abaza in El-Hob El-Daea' (1970), followed Me, My Wife and the Secretary (1970). In 1973, she appeared alongside box-office star Salah Zulfikar in Al-Rajul Al-Akhar (1973) and the film was a box-office success. She also starred alongside Farid Al-Atrash in Zaman Ya Hub (1973), and Al-Mothneboon (1975) among other works on stage such as; Ana we Heya we mrati (1987).

Zubaida Tharwat in 1973

The last work in which she participated was a play; A Very Happy Family with Amin El-Hunaidi and El-Muntaser Billah, written and directed by El Sayed Badir. She also starred in the play 20 Chickens and a Rooster and decided to retire in the late 1980s. During her career, she was given many nicknames such as "The Pussycat of Arabic Cinema", "Magic Eyes" and "The Queen of Romance".

Tharwat had 3 siblings, including her twin sister Hikmet. She got married five times, her first marriage was in 1960 to an officer in the Egyptian Navy named Ihab El-Ghazawi, then the Syrian producer Sobhi Farhat, with whom she gave birth to her four daughters. Her third husband was Mohamed Ismail. Tharwat's last husband, the actor Omar Nagi, which was her last marriage.

Zubaida Tharwat in 1975

She stated in her last interview that she did not know that Abdel Halim Hafez had proposed to her, he asked to marry just after her second marriage, and she recommended that she be buried next to him after she dies. After retiring from films, she made the decision to migrate to the United States, and lived there for a while, but eventually returned to Egypt and died at the age of 76 in Cairo after a long battle with cancer and aging-associated diseases.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zubaida Tharwat.

• Zubaida Tharwat at IMDb
• (in Arabic) Zubaida Tharwat at the Arab Cinema Database