The actor suffered from severe pneumonia during the past two days Culture Minister Inas Abdel Dayem paid tribute to Shafea saying he had “formed a dramatic milestone" CAIRO: Egyptian actor and academic Sanaa Shafea died on Wednesday at the age of 77 after a short illness. The actor suffered from severe pneumonia during the past two days before he died in hospital, Egyptian newspapers said. Egyptian Culture Minister Inas Abdel Dayem paid tribute to Shafea saying he had “formed a dramatic milestone in Egyptian theatrical performance,” Al-Akhbar El-Youm newspaper reported. Abdel Dayem said that throughout his career he succeeded in performing complex characters and produced a group of immortal works. The actor, theater director and professor was the dean of the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Cairo. He reportedly married nine times, among them his marriage to Egyptian actor Nada Bassiouny. Born in 1943, in Assiut region, Upper Egypt, Shafea lived in a village for eight years before moving to Cairo with his father. His love for acting was met with objection from his father, who was a scholar at Al-Azhar Islamic Institute. Shafea took part in almost 30 films and played a number of roles in many television series, the most prominent of which are “Omar bin Abdul Aziz”, “Haroun Al-Rasheed”, “Bab Al-Khalq”, “Hadret Al Motaham Aby”, and during last Ramadan he participated in “Layalina 80”.