Mohamed El-Bakkar

A Lebanese singer, actor, composer, oud player, and orchestra leader. He was born on January 25, 1915 to a father who worked as a Beirut customs official. He joined the Islamic College in Beirut. While he was in Lebanon, he participated in a French silent film, and his father feared for him, so he took him away from the city, where he worked as a school principal in the village of Choueifat. Talaat Harb heard him singing in Lebanon, so he summoned him to Egypt, and he joined the national troupe, and participated in many plays, then he joined the Schulz Institute of Music for 3 years, and composed The Death of Cleopatra and Cambyses by the poet Ahmed Shawqi, but the outbreak of World War II, and his need for money made him leave the opera, and go down to popular music and participated in local plays, and participated in many Egyptian films, and was known for his comedic roles, and he played the roles of Levantine characters, as well as He prepared soundtracks for films, sang and provided melodies, and sang in the celebration of Princess Fawzia over the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi. Among the most important films of Muhammad Al-Bakkar are Naduja 1944, My Heart and My Sword 1947, Fayrouz Hanem 1951, and Come to Peace 1951. With the outbreak of the revolution in 1952, he made his last film, The Rule of Time 1953. Then he moved to the United States of America, lived in Brooklyn, New York, recorded and produced a collection of records of oriental music, and acted and sang in Broadway theatres. Muhammad Al-Bakkar died of a cerebral hemorrhage on September 8, 1959, at the age of 44.