You know how sometimes people say there are certain things you can’t talk about? You know, things like fan-favorite books and movies and actors everyone has agreed are the best of the best, all because you just can’t talk about them.
Well, we’ve decided to ignore that tip. See, we’re going into it right now and we’re going to not only discuss, but rank our top male leads from Egypt’s Golden Cinema Age. Prepare for the hot takes!
7 – Abdelhalim Hafez
Look, we have a solid reason for giving Abdelhalim the lowest rank, okay?
He’s one of the best voices that have ever came out of Egypt, that’s true and undisputed, but let’s focus on the acting. See, he’s not a good actor. He gave us the best ballads, yes, but that doesn’t make up for the lack of acting skills.
6 – Ahmed Ramzy
On some level, we all know that even though Ahmed Ramzy was a decent actor, he wasn’t exactly his own era’s Al Pacino. And, yes, we’ve all made our peace with it and we think he did too. Where would that era’s Rom-Coms be without him?
5 – Hassan Youssef
Another veteran of the quasi-Romantic Comedy in Egypt, Hassan Youssef is only ranked here because, well, the list demands it.
See, he’s a great actor but back in the day, he hadn’t explored his full talent range. But that still doesn’t deny his impact on the period one bit.
4 – Ahmed Mazhar
A quiet acting force with a hairstyle that stands the test of time, Ahmed Mazhar was always going to be in the top half of this list. And if you want to call this controversial, you’re free to do so.
But then again, you should try to imagine cinema without Saladin. Hard, isn’t it?
3- Rushdy Abaza
Okay, how can we not start discussing this man? We’ve all known it would get down to it eventually.
Other than being a lot of people’s Dream Romantic Lead, though, Rushdy Abaza gave us a full range of acting, going from extreme evil to extreme goodness and literally everything in between.
2 – Shokry Sarhan
Hey, tell us, did you know that Shokry Sarhan was actually almost picked to be in Omar El-Sherif’s Lawrence of Arabia shoes? If you didn’t, well, you surely can’t be surprised.
The man was that good of an actor. Honestly, have you seen a person who’d gone to the extremes to explore the lengths of human tragedy in almost every film he’d been in?
1 – Omar El-Sherif
No, really, who are we to skip over Omar El-Sherif’s name when it comes to ranking a lot of the actors from Egypt’s Golden Era? It’s kind of impossible to bring them all up and not mention him, honestly. With good reason.
See, while we can all argue about his acting chops from his first few films, no one can deny that Omar El-Sherif quickly reached the limits of his talents and then went over them. How else would a person reach international renown?
