Mounira Sonbol
(1939)
Born into an upper middle class family, she attended the English Girls’ College (EGC) in Alexandria, where a tradition of stage productions and theatricals along with exposure to the rich cultural scene of the time helped her develop an interest in the performing arts.
The emancipated, more or less liberal sports loving young starlet later studying at the American University in Cairo was spotted by a Kawakeb magazine journalist whose attention she caught while playing sports in the capital’s well frequented Guezireh Sporting Club in 1956.
An all too brief acting career ensued where she took part in a very limited number of films before getting married and leaving the film scene, never to re-emerge except on rare television appearances hosted on talk shows to share her memories of cinema’s heyday.
A mixed parentage of Greek blood from her maternal grandmother and a lithe swimmer’s silhouette helped to cast her as the young, sometimes immature, pleasure seeking and spoilt young girl, or the seductive, allowing ‘other’ woman.
Filmography:
1957: The Prisoner of Abou Zaabal (Sagîn Abou Za’bal)
1957: Women in my Life (Nisâ’ fî hayyâtî)
1958: Devils of the Air (Chayâtîn el Gaw)
1958: The Street of Love (Châri’ el houbb)
