Few indeed are those who deserve a professorship in acting but the Egyptian actor Mahmoud Mursi was — without a doubt — among that small number. In the case of the late Mahmoud Mursi’s art, no one could imagine him as anything but an actor. His presence, his looks and his charisma all identified him instantly in addition to his God-given talent definitely put him well into the realms of excellence. Had it all been up to him, he would never have considered anything but acting; however, he postponed the inevitable clash with his family until after graduation from Alexandria University with a BA.
Mahmoud Mursi was born on June 7 1923. After graduating with his degree, he went to Paris to study cinema production. He lost himself in Parisian life, soon spending all his money and forcing him to get a job. In the end, he found work as an Arabic announcer on French radio.
No sooner had he settled into the job than a decision by the French government to ban Egyptians because of the Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal left him unemployed. He picked up his bags and went to London where he got a job in the BBC’s Arabic service. Once again politics displaced him and feeling that he could not live in a country that was at war with his, he chose to return to Egypt of his own free will. Once in Egypt, he was given a job as broadcaster and director of The Cultural channel on Egyptian radio by President Nasser as a reward for his patriotic stance.
Mursi’s talent was soon activated and appreciated. He was soon sent to Italy on a short scholarship to study TV production there. Ultimately, however, the cinema put him to work as an actor and he appeared in his first film in 1962, “I am the Runaway” by Niazi Mustafa. Though the role was a small one, Mursi attracted with his talent and vitality and reviews spoke of his potential and promise. His acting successes continued with “The Rebel,” “The Open Door,” “The Last Night,” “The Traitor,” “The Autumn and the Quail” and others. It was, however, the role of Atrees in “Something to Fear” that propelled him to real stardom.
The film was full of political implications. Cinema critic Ali Abu Shadi said that the movie-makers had shown the dicatorial nature of Nasser and his revolutionaries and questioned the government’s right to power. It was whispered into Nasser’s ear that the film criticized his power and that the character, Atrees, symbolized him: bloody, ruthless, corrupt and leading an illegal gang that had forcefully taken over the country. In the end, Nasser watched the film and then made the famous statement, “In God’s name, if this is us, we deserve to be burned.” This was viewed as a green light to show the movie publicly and it was a tremendous boost to Mursi’s career.
By the early 1980s, Mahmoud Mursi had realized that the contemporary cinema was not for him and he was not for it. He turned to TV drama and put his experience, talent and expertise to good use there. Among his famous roles are some of the best-known in Egyptian drama, such as in “Abu Al-Alal Al-Bashari,” “The Family,” The Man and The Horse,” “The Fruit of My Thoughts” and others. He also won critical and popular acclaim with his TV adaption of Naguib Mahfouz’s famous trilogy dealing with life in a Cairo family over a number of years.
Mahmoud Mursi chose to live his life out of the spotlight and, seldom gave a newspaper or TV interview. His audiences knew little about his personal life except that he was married to the actress, Samiha Ayoub, and had a son, Ala’a. Mursi once said that his attitude to interviews and publicity was not that he felt above them but that he strove for selflessness and disapproved of the modern and contemporary reporting about the acting world. He said he found the idea of an interviewer asking him about his favorite food or favorite color intolerable — which is why he preferred his connections with the press to be limited to his work and nothing else. Mahmoud Mursi remained loyal to his standards regarding the press until the end of his life. He did not even publicize his poor health but when he died, his death was widely mourned and even more widely reported.
