Veteran Iraqi actress Salima Khudair dies at 79

Dubai: Salima Khudair, a veteran Iraqi actress who became one of the most recognizable faces on stage and television from the 1960s through the 1990s, died on Tuesday in Baghdad. She was 79.

The Iraqi Artists Syndicate confirmed her death in a statement on Facebook, saying she passed away after a sudden health crisis.

Born in the southern port city of Basra on Dec. 14, 1946, Khudair studied Arabic literature, graduating in 1970, but her passion for performance began earlier.

In the late 1950s, she joined the amateur troupe Hawat Al Fann (Lovers of Art), which became a springboard for a career spanning more than five decades.

On stage, she starred in some of Iraq’s most celebrated plays, including The Palm Tree and the Neighbors, The Bey and the Driver, and Be Careful, This Could Happen to You.

She also built a formidable film career, appearing in works such as The Guard, The Experiment, and Fever of the Champions. Her television roles, in series like The Big House, This Is Love, and The Scorpio Tower, made her a household name across Iraq.

Khudair was equally prolific in radio and literature. She published a short-story collection, Revolution of the Depths, in 1964, followed a decade later by her novel The Palms of Our Homeland. She had been working on her memoirs in recent years, though they remain unpublished.

Her career was recognised at several Arab arts festivals, where she won awards for her contributions to theatre and television.

In 2011, tragedy struck when her son Wisam was killed in a car accident. Devastated, Khudair retired from acting, retreating from public life and focusing instead on writing and occasional cultural appearances.