Zaki Rostom

An Egyptian actor considered by many international critics to be one of the most talented artists in the East and the world. He was born in the Al-Halmeya neighborhood in Cairo to an elegant aristocratic family, and his father and grandfather were pashas of Egypt. He was born in a palace owned by his grandfather, Major General Mahmoud Pasha Rustom, one of the prominent Egyptian army men. His father, Mahmoud Bey Rustom, was a major agricultural landowner, a member of the National Party, and a personal friend of Mustafa Kamel. His father died while he was still a boy, and his father's friend (Mustafa Bey Naguib), the father of the artist (Suleiman Bey Naguib), who remained one of Zaki Rustom's few friends throughout his life, took care of him, which allowed him to form relationships with some theater artists at that time - including the artist (Abdul Wareth Asar). He practiced sports from a young age and practiced weightlifting, winning the championship in 1923 before obtaining his baccalaureate degree. His hobby in acting began when he was a baccalaureate student in 1924, when George Abyad admired him and included him in his troupe. He was supposed to complete his studies at the Faculty of Law, according to the prevailing tradition in aristocratic families, which obligates their children to complete their university studies, but he refused to study law, and told his mother that he wanted to be an actor. Which I strongly rejected and gave him the choice between his life as an artist and continuing his life with them. He chose art and moved to (Yacoubian Building) in central Cairo in the (Downtown) area, where he lived for the rest of his life. This caused his mother to become paralyzed with grief over her son's choice, which had a major impact on him for the rest of his life. He moved to the Ramses troupe in 1925 with Ahmed Allam, who was assigned major roles, and to the theatrical troupes of Fatima Rushdi and Aziz Eid, then finally to the National Troupe in 1935. His first involvement with cinema began with silent cinema with the film Zeinab in 1930. Then he participated in the first Egyptian talkie film, “The White Rose” in 1932, and his cinematic works continued for thirty consecutive years without interruption until the beginning of the sixties. In his cinematic career, he was known for the diversity of his roles, from the roles of the aristocratic pasha to the caring father to the teacher in the vegetable market to the bully to the employee to the lawyer to the cruel husband, and the distinguished roles of evil were his mark and what he was known for performing in a very distinguished way. He was known for fully embodying his characters and paying close attention to their smallest details, from clothing to experiencing the atmosphere during filming in all its details, which he began very early, since his beginning in the (George Abyad) band. Among his roles that left a clear imprint on Egyptian cinema within this framework are his roles in the films (Pier Number Five), (Al-Fatwa) and (Nahr Al-Hob). His acting talent was coupled with his tendency toward extreme isolation and his lack of friends. He had almost no friends from or outside the artistic community, and his relationship with his colleagues ended when filming ended, and he did not marry throughout his life. In the early sixties, his hearing began to weaken little by little until he lost his hearing completely, which forced him to leave his job and his favorite activity and live in his apartment in central Cairo with his dog and his servant until the end of his life. He died of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of sixty-nine.