Thurayya Fakhri — Profile

• Name: Thurayya Fakhri
• Profession: Film and stage actress, renowned for roles as the mother, the aunt, the kind neighbor, and the daya (a traditional community midwife)
• Active years: Late 1930s to late 1960s

Training and Early Career

• Began her artistic journey on the stage before moving into cinema.
• Emerged as one of Egyptian cinema’s most recognizable character actresses, celebrated for her spontaneous, unaffected delivery, her warm, distinctive voice, and her engaging screen presence.

Style and Artistic Traits

• Noted for a natural, unforced style and a talent for bringing authenticity to simple, everyday characters.
• Frequently portrayed the tender mother, the stern aunt, or the neighbor/daya—an on-screen presence that felt familiar and comforting to audiences for decades.
• Note: “Daya” refers to a traditional midwife who served local communities, especially in older neighborhoods.

Key Works

• Appeared in dozens of Egyptian social dramas and comedies across the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

Notes

• Often cited by critics as a cornerstone among supporting actresses in the classical era of Egyptian cinema (roughly the 1930s–1960s).
• The breadth of her supporting roles—and their narrative importance—kept her name vivid in the audience’s memory, even without top-billed starring parts.