Nadia Elgendi (Also written as Nadia El Gendi; arz, ناديه الجندى) (born 1940 in Khta

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

) is an

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

ian

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

and producer. She is often known in Egypt as ''"Negmet El gamaheer"'' (the star of masses) because of the high commercial success of her movies in the 1990s. Through her still on-going 6-decades career, she has appeared in 61 movies and 7 TV shows. She is most recognized for her

femme fatale A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of ...

roles and spy movies related to Egyptian-Israeli conflict and patriotic issues after 1952 revolution, such as ''El Gasousa Hekmat Fahmy'' (1994), ''Mohemma Fi Tel Aviv'' (1992). Also, she is known for various crime movies, ranging from vulgar drug dealer in Egyptian suburbs to a professional thief.

Career

1958–1980

Started her work in cinema after winning in a beauty contest in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

which gained her debut 1958 in a small role in Youssef Chahine's historical movie about the French colonialism in North Africa, Gamila with prominent actors

Magda Magda is a feminine given name, sometimes a short form ( hypocorism) of names such as Magdalena, which may refer to: * Magda Apanowicz (born 1985), Canadian actress * Magda B. Arnold (1903–2002), Czechoslovakian-born American psychologist * M ...

and

Salah Zulfikar Salah El Din Ahmed Mourad Zulfikar ( ar, صلاح ذو الفقار; ; 18 January 1926 – 22 December 1993) was an Egyptian actor and film producer. He started his career as a police officer in the Egyptian National Police, before becoming an ac ...

. In the sixties, she had many various small roles, such as her role in the romance, A Storm of Love with

and

Nahed Sherif Nahed Sherif ( ar, ناهد شريف), (1 January 1942 – 7 April 1981) was an Egyptian actress who came to prominence in Egyptian and Lebanese films of the 1960s and 1970s. Biography Born Samiha Zaki El-Nial () and a Lycée Français du Caire ...

in 1961 and Too Young for Love with

Soad Hosny System of a Down (also known as SoaD or simply System) is an Armenian-American heavy metal band formed in Glendale, California, in 1994. Since 1997, the band has consisted of Serj Tankian (lead vocals, keyboards); Daron Malakian (guitar, voca ...

and

Rushdy Abaza Rushdy Saiid El Bughdady Abaza ( arz, رشدي سعيد البوغدادي أباظة) (3 August 1926 – 27 July 1980) was an Egyptian film and television actor. He was considered one of the most charming actors in the Egyptian film industry. He ...

in 1966. In early 1970s played the role of Zaghaga, a local drug dealer, in TV soap opera al-Dawwama (The Whirlpool), besides

Mahmoud Yassin Mahmoud Yassin ( ar, محمود ياسين; 19 February 1941 – 14 October 2020) was an Egyptian actor. He was an iconic actor in both Egyptian cinema The cinema of Egypt refers to the flourishing film industry based in Cairo, sometimes also re ...

and then-young

Mahmoud Abdel Aziz Mahmoud Abdel Aziz ( ar, محمود عبد العزيز‎; 4 June 1946 – 12 November 2016) was an Egyptian film and television actor. He became famous for several famous roles in Egyptian cinema, before becoming famous in his native Egyp ...

, the series was very popular and was produced for theaters. In 1974 she earned more recognition when she produced her own movie, ''Bamba Kashar'', in which she played the role of the real 20th belly dancer of the same name, it was directed by

Hassan El Imam Hassan el-Imam ( ar, حسن الإمام; March 6, 1919, in Mansoura, Egypt – January 29, 1988) was a prominent Egyptian film director. He was nicknamed the Box-office King. Early life Hassan El-Imam was born on March 6, 1919, in the city of M ...

as quite similar to his typical melodrama characteristics, also contained many songs and dances performed by El Gendy, the movies starred her then-husband,

Emad Hamdy Emad Hamdy ( ar, عماد حمدي, ; November 25, 1909 – January 28, 1984) was an Egyptian actor. He was married to the Egyptian actress Shadia between 1953 and 1956. And between 1962 and 1975 he was married to the Egyptian actress Nadia E ...

, and notably despite the screening permits faced longtime problems, it had had very wide success in theaters for many weeks. From 1980 to 1984, she starred in different commercially successful movies and some of them were well-received by many critics, such as the role of Neama't Allah in ''Wekalet El Balah'', which is scripted by

Nobel prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

laureate

Naguib Mahfouz Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha ( arz, نجيب محفوظ عبد العزيز ابراهيم احمد الباشا, ; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. ...

, which she appeared as a very strong boss in old rural part in old Cairo and has her own warehouse, but she falls in love with a newly appointed worker and then marries him, which gives glimpses of the struggle between her rigor personality and the weakness resulted and affected by love, leading the character to explore ecstasy, jealousy and revenge. In ''El-Batneyya'', named after another popular Egyptian area, she's starred beside prominent actors including

Farid Shawki Farid Shawqi Mohammad Abdou Shawqi ( ar, فريد شوقي محمد عبده شوقي) (July 30, 1920 in El Sayyeda Zainab – July 27, 1998 in Maadi); known as Farid Shawqi ( ar, فريد شوقي) was an Egyptians, Egyptian actor, screenwrite ...

, Ahmed Zaki and Farouk El Feshawi.

1990s

Nadia El Gendy has collaborated with director Nader Galal in nine movies starting with ''Jabarowt Emraa'' (A Woman's Might) in 1984 and ending with ''Amn Dawla'' in 1999, El Gendy appeared as an intelligent agent (or double agent) in most of the works, or roles with significant femme fatale characteristics, also many were low-budget. In ''A'sr El Quwwa'' (Age of Power), played a different role she hasn't done before, as she was an aspiring recently-graduated lawyer and daughter of a billionaire who is involved along with his family in many crime and illegal activities, the movie is significantly influenced by The Godfather trilogy.

2000s–2010s

The last film she has appeared in is Aly Badrakhan's Al-raghba in 2001, beside Ilham Shaheen and Yaser Galal in, a film loosely based on

A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of person ...

. Since then, she has only participated in four soap operas but in leading roles: ''Zeinat'', ''Man Atlak al-nar A'la Hend Allam?'' (Who shot Hend Allam?), ''Maleka fi el-Manfa'' (Queen in Exile), and ''Asrar'' (Secrets). In September 2018, El Gendy announced on her official Instagram account that she will star in a new spy role after nearly two decades of the last similar role she had done.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gindi, Nadia 1946 births Living people 20th-century Egyptian actresses Actors from Alexandria