Farid Shawqi
Egyptian actor, screenwriter, and film producer (1920–1998)
Farid Shawqi Mohammad Abdou Shawqi (Arabic: فريد شوقي محمد عبده شوقي) (July 30, 1920 in El Sayyeda Zainab – July 27, 1998 in Maadi); known as Farid Shawqi (Arabic: فريد شوقي) was an Egyptian actor, screenwriter and film producer. He acted in 351 films, 27 plays and 17 television series; wrote 25 film scripts and produced 30 films. He is considered to be one of the greatest actors in the Middle East.
He was also known as "Malek El Terso" ("The King of the Third Class" - a reference to his popularity among the poor, who bought third-class seats in movie theatres), as "Wahsh Ash shashah Al Arabiyah" ("The Monster of the Arab Silver Screen" - in honor of his various roles of beloved hero, as "Farid Bay" ("Sir Farid", an informal title of respect), as "Abu el-Banat" ("father of all girls", a reference to his having five daughters and no sons), and other names. ُُThe closet title to Farid Shawqi's heart was "The King"; he was named this after his movie "Night's Devils" that was released in 1966, directed by Niazi Mostafa. He was known as "The king" among his colleagues.
Career
In a career spanning almost 50 years, Shawqi starred, produced, or wrote the scenario of over 400 films - more than the films produced collectively by the whole Arab world - in addition to theatre, television and video plays. His popularity covered the whole of the Arab World and the Middle East, including Turkey where he acted in some films there, and directors always addressed his as ' Farid Bay' (Sir Farid) as a sign of respect. As he worked with over 90 Film directors and producers.
For the first ten years he typically cast as a villain.
The public source identifies “Farid Shawqi” as egyptian actor, screenwriter, and film producer (1920–1998). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Farid, Shawqi and Egyptian.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q981905. VIAF identifies the subject as 75719005. The Library of Congress control number is n2005014408. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1920, 1998 and 1966.
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This entry incorporates text from “Farid Shawqi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.