Death takes Jordanian artist Hisham Yanis at the age of 78

Jordanian artist Hisham Yanis passed away at the age of 78 after a long struggle with a stroke that struck him 17 years ago.

Who is Hisham Yanis? Yans was born in 1946 and graduated from the Faculty of Law in Cairo. During his university studies, he found his way to the university theater with his colleagues, some of whom later became stars in Egyptian drama.

Yans had a great presence through the comedy variety show “Amman Nights” in the early eighties of the last century, and after that he launched the daily “political satirical” theater in Jordan, and the duo Amal Al-Dabbas and Nabil Sawalha joined him successively, and he gained wider fame as a result of his imitation of well-known Jordanian, Arab and international figures with a satirical touch.

He wrote no less than 82 TV series and 15 political plays, the most famous of which is “New World Order” in collaboration with Amal Al-Dabbas and Nabil Sawalha, and the plays: Arab Summit Conference, Peace, Peace, Normalization, Hello Government, The Siege That Happened, The Shock, Saddam, and I Cook.

The late founder founded the first school theatre in Abu Dhabi, starting with the play (Ahmed bin Majid). He also worked in both the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the State of Qatar as a reviewer of television scripts and supervisor of school theatres there.

He devoted himself to writing, and wrote dozens of radio and television series, the most important of which are: Tell Al-Fakhar, Al-Nashami Ya Bahr, Al-Kanz, Al-Zahir Baybars, and others.

In the eighties, he presented the educational series (Al-Manahil), which achieved wide Arab fame. He joined the Jordanian Writers Association and the Artists Syndicate, but his membership was suspended for political reasons.

He presented a number of songs for some Jordanian and Arab artists such as: Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Farid Al Atrash, Sabah, Samira Tawfiq, Moharam Fouad, Salwa, Tawfiq Al Namri, Ismail Khader, Wadih Al Safi, Shadia, Nazem Al Ghazali, Sabah Fakhri, Mohammed Abdu, and others. In 2007, he suffered a medical stroke that confined him to bed.

He was famous for imitating public figures, especially artists and heads of state. He imitated the late King Hussein bin Talal, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Mohamed Anwar Sadat, Habib Bourguiba, Mohamed Metwally Al-Shaarawy, and others.

The last appearance of the deceased was in early 2022, when Haifa Al-Najjar, the former Jordanian Minister of Culture, visited him in the presence of his wife and children, and she published a photo of the visit on her website.