Amina Rizk, 90; Egyptian Film Actress Had a 79-Year Career

Amina Rizk, 90, a pioneering actress in the Egyptian movie industry, died Sunday in a Cairo hospital of causes associated with aging. She had performed until she entered the hospital two months ago.

Rizk began acting at age 11 and performed in her first stage play, “Soad the Gypsy,” when she was 15. She was one of the last survivors of a generation of actors who helped Egypt become the center of the Arab film industry beginning in the 1930s.

The actress was best known for her roles in such movies as “Land of Dreams,” “I Want a Solution” and “A Beginning and an End,” which was based on the novel by Egypt’s Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz.

Rizk never married. In 1997, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak appointed her to a largely ceremonial post in the parliament’s upper house.