İsmail Yasin

İsmail Yasin — Biography

Ismail Yassine was born on 15 September 1912 in Suez, the only son of a prosperous jeweler; his mother died when he was young, and after his father's business collapsed and he was imprisoned for debt, the boy left school early to work as a street crier and later a car-park attendant. As a teenager he moved to Cairo, worked as a café waiter, joined the troupe of the well-known dancer Nawassa, and formed a lifelong artistic partnership with writer Abu Al-Saud Al-Ibiary; he built his name as a monologist at Bade'ah Musabni's nightclub between 1935 and 1945.

He entered cinema in 1939 with Khalaf El-Habayeb, mostly in supporting parts, until director Anwar Wagdi took notice of him in 1944; he won his first leading role in Al-Nasih in 1949. His golden years of 1952-1954 saw him star in sixteen films in a single year, and in 1954 he and Al-Ibiary founded a theater troupe that ran for twelve years and staged more than fifty plays. From 1955, working with director Fatin Abdel Wahab and Al-Ibiary, he produced a long series of films carrying his own name, many built around his screen partnership with actor Riad al-Qasabgi, appearing in more than 166 films over his career.

Married three times, Yassine had one son, the director Yassin Ismail Yassine, from his last wife, Fawzia. He died in Cairo on 24 May 1972.