Egypt’s General Authority for Culture Palaces celebrates birth anniversary of Naguib el-Rihani

CAIRO – 21 January 2021: The General Authority for Culture Palaces celebrated the birth anniversary of Naguib el-Rihani on its official Facebook page.

According to the authority’s post, Rihani was one of the most famous theater actors in the twentieth century and was well known by the name of the character “Kesh Kesh Bey”. His birth name is Naguib Elias Rihana. He was born in Bab al-Sharia on January 21, 1889, to a father of Iraqi descent.

Rihani studied at Frere Primary School and was fluent in French. At school, he joined the theater team and his talent was asserting itself day after day.

After obtaining his baccalaureate degree, Rihani started looking for work to help his family. The late actor took several jobs, but did not continue for long due to his obsession with acting and his love for art.

At a certain point, Rihani met the artist Aziz Eid and they worked together. He also worked with George Abyad’s troupe until he eventually befriended Badie Khairy who became his acting partner and together they wrote numerous theatrical plays.

Kesh Kesh Bey was a character Rihani played in one of his plays, and became very popular so he decided to embody it in a movie.

Rihani died on June 8, 1949 after a struggle with illness, leaving despite his few works, a deep mark in the cinema and theater that remained in the people’s memory.