Youssef Wahbi

Youssef Wahbi — Biography

Youssef Wahbi (born Youssef Abdallah Wahbi Qotb) was born on 14 July 1898 in the Faiyum region of Egypt; he was named after the Bahr Yusuf canal, where his father worked as an inspector for the irrigation authority. Although raised as the son of a senior government official, he set aside his family's wealth and moved to Rome in 1919 to study theatre, where he married Italian actress Elena Lunda.

Fluent in English, French and Italian alongside his native Arabic, Wahbi translated many of the plays he staged into those languages, and was regarded as a pioneer of stage arts across Egypt and the wider Arab world, becoming one of the most recognized names of the 1930s and 1940s. In 1926 a Turkish filmmaker proposed he play the Prophet Muhammad in a European production; despite Atatürk's approval, the plan collapsed after Al-Azhar University objected and King Fouad threatened to strip him of his citizenship.

His film career began with the 1932 production Awlad al-Zawat and, spanning close to fifty films, closed with Alexandria... Why? in 1978; he also worked as a director and screenwriter. He served on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival in 1946.

After a final period marked by arthritis and a fractured pelvis, Wahbi died in Cairo on 17 October 1982 with his wife at his side, and was remembered in a New York Times obituary as the "Dean of the Egyptian Stage".