The Egyptian actor Khaled Saleh was not one of the traditional artists, but rather one of those who adopted the school of easy and reluctant performance, as he was able to make his mark in the history of Egyptian cinema and drama during an unfinished artistic career, due to his sudden departure on September 25, 2014.
Saleh presented difficult and complex characters simply and smoothly, he does not resort to provocation, but rather honesty was the characteristic that distinguished him as an actor, so it is not possible to distinguish between truth and acting when we see it on the screen, as he is the comedian, the frown, the romantic, the corrupt and the revolutionary. Rustem.
Orphan behind his late stardom
His family life did not allow him to start his career as a professional actor early, despite his love for acting since he was a child. Khaled Saleh, who was born on January 20, 1964, in the village of Abu Al-Nomros in Giza Governorate, encountered an orphan after the death of his mother first, Then his father joined her after a while, so Khaled took care of his siblings.
His family experience made him keen, in addition to acting on the university stage while studying at the Faculty of Law, to secure his financial life away from art, so he started his life after graduating from the university as a taxi driver, and then he traveled to the Gulf and started working in commerce for a while, and he dreamed at that time that he would own Confectionery factory.
Merchant and combars
Khaled Saleh returned again to settle in Egypt and establish his business in which he worked for many years, but he thought of satisfying the hobby of acting through his participation as a silent competitor in the theater, so he worked in state theaters during that period, which is the stage that polished his talent, so he later decided to devote himself to acting, while he was in 36 years old.
The beginning of political projections
Contrary to what is rumored that the beginning of Khaled Saleh's success was in 2002, after he participated in the movie "Lawyer Khula" in front of Hani Ramzy, but the character of the former Egyptian General Intelligence chief Salah Nasr, presented in 1998, through the movie "Nasser", was the real beginning Khaled Saleh, who introduced him to the audience, and subsequently gained overwhelming popularity despite the film being banned.
"Nasser" is not the only experience that carries a political dimension in Khaled Saleh's cinematic career. His choice of his work was a result of his revolution, as he was among the sons of the January 25, 2011 revolution and who supported it. Even before the revolution, he was keen to select works that expose the corruption of the authority and the police as well. He fears that these works will later affect his stardom or that he will be curtailed, like some artists who suffered because of their political positions.
In the movie "The Yacoubian Building", which is based on the novel by the writer Alaa Al Aswany of the same name, he presented the character "Kamal Al Fuli", which symbolizes the corruption of power.
Although the work included big names, such as Adel Imam, Nour Al-Sharif and Khaled Al-Sawy, Khaled Saleh's imprint was strong, which he introduced a year later, director Youssef Shaheen, to present his first starring in the movie "Heya Fawda".
In this film, Saleh presented the character of Hatem, the police secretary, the owner of power, influence, and oppressive hand, who exploits his position in the worst way to achieve his personal interests. Hatem is a natural result of the Egyptian society that suffered from its oppression, and Khaled Saleh’s famous sentence was: “What is good in Hatem Maloush Good in Egypt, "and the film at its time also exposed repression, bribery, favoritism, rigging elections, control of the authority, and other matters that led to a collective revolution.
After the revolution and in 2013, he returned again to political projection in his experience with the author and director Muhammad Amin in the movie "Black February", and a sentence - in the words of Khaled Saleh, the hero of the film - summarizes the content of the film when he said, "The homeland expelled us from its airspace and we must also expel him from Joanna, and we will not return to the homeland except we do not know our position in Goa. The hero, a scientist, is trying to emigrate with his family to search for safe solutions for a better life.
Khaled Saleh's experience with director Khaled Youssef is not similar in its content to previous works in films such as "When Maysara", "The President Omar Harb" and "Kaf Al Qamar".
Romantic, villain and comedian
“I want a rose, Oh Ibrahim,” a famous phrase said by actress Hind Sabry in the events of the movie “The Best Times”, so that Ibrahim or Khaled Saleh would ultimately give her what she wanted, and achieve her the image of the romantic husband, which is the picture he also presented with Hind in the series “After The separation ", a romantic act through which he broke the rule of the handsome star, and at that time he was able to become the dream knight of many women with his own distinctive way and style.
He also presented the character of the villain in a comic manner in films such as "The War of Italy", "Son of the Consul", and "The Price of a Dozen Bad Guys", and during his career he received the title "Merchant of Happiness", which is the name of the series he presented in 2009.
An open heart that ends a promising journey
In 2014, the end of his career was after Khaled Saleh underwent an open heart operation at the Center for International Physician Magdi Yacoub in Aswan, to leave life after a sudden at the age of 50, which shocked his colleagues in the artistic community and his fans.