JEDDAH, 22 May 2006 — The celebrated Egyptian comedienne Sana Yunus died of lung cancer on Saturday at the age of 64. She had spent 40 years in Egyptian theater and film.
Dr. Muhammad Awad Tajuddin, professor of thoracic medicine at Ayn Shams University Medical College and former Egyptian health minister who headed the medical team attending the actress said she was in an advanced stage of cancer which had spread to the lungs, the liver and other vital organs, Asharq Al-Awsat reported yesterday.
Sana, who began her career as a stage actress in Alexandria, her birthplace, later entered the world of motion pictures in Yusuf Shaheen’s film “The Sixth Day.” She also worked with him in “The Plight,” “The 11th of September” and “The Fury.”
She won the award for the best supporting actress for her role in “The Scandal” at the Alexandria Film Festival in 1992. Sana’s notable movies included “The Raya and Sakeenah” with Yunus Shebi and Sherihan, “The War of Strawberries” with Yusra and Mahmoud Hamidah, and “The Temper” with Ahmad Budair, “The Last Generation,” “Ward 4” and “The Italian War.”
Sana began to be admired as a theater actress with her oustanding performance in the 1960s in the role of the heroine in the Egyptian play, “Locking up the Girls,” with Fuad Al-Muhandis. She also performed diverse roles in plays such as “Halah My Beloved,” “Black Hare” and “Adilah.” It was her superb stage performance in “The Ghoul” that prompted Yusuf Shaheen to persuade her to enter the world of films.
Unlike on the stage, her roles in films were mostly comic. She was featured in TV films such as “The Beautiful Illusion,” the serial “Hoor Al-Ayn” aired last Ramadan and “Agent 1001” in which she played the role of a Jew settled in Egypt.
Born in 1942, Sana moved to Cairo in 1967 and spent most of her career devoted to art. She was noted for her roles of talkative women, helpless spinsters, or affectionate mothers. She was a graduate in sociology from the College of Literature in Alexandria.