Mohamed Fawzi Elhaw

After arriving in Cairo in 1938, Fawzi began working with Badia Masabni's troupe, then Fatima Rushdi's troupe, and finally the National Theatre Troupe.

Singing was Mohamed Fawzi's passion, so he decided to revive the works of Sayed Darwish as a springboard to performing his own compositions. His opportunity arose when the Egyptian Acting and Music Troupe contracted him as an actor and singer in Sayed Darwish's play Scheherazade; his failure in the role left him disheartened, especially in front of an unforgiving audience. He withdrew from the scene for a while until actress Fatima Rushdi, who admired him and believed in his talent, offered him a position in her troupe as an actor, composer, and singer. He gratefully accepted her offer. In 1944, Youssef Wahbi asked him to play a small role in the film The Executioner's Sword, in which he would sing two songs composed by Wahbi. A stipulation from Wahbi was that Fawzi be credited simply as "Mohamed Fawzi," to which Fawzi agreed without hesitation.

Director Mohamed Karim saw The Executioner's Sword and was looking for a new face to play the lead role in his film The Happy Ones opposite Suleiman Naguib and the singer Raja Abdo. He found what he was looking for in Mohamed Fawzi, but required that he undergo cosmetic surgery to correct his slightly flat upper lip. Fawzi complied, and later discovered that Mohamed Karim had been right. His success in The Happy Ones helped him establish his own film company, Mohamed Fawzi Films, in 1947.

Egyptian radio, which had rejected him as a singer, continued to broadcast his film songs without ever considering signing him. After the July 1952 revolution, radio began to play his patriotic songs, such as "My Country, I Loved You, My Country," and religious songs like "O Oft-Returning, O Forgiving," and "My God, How Just You Are." He also sang children's songs such as "Mama's Coming Soon" and "The Night Has Gone," which he performed in the film "Miracle of Heaven." Fawzi also participated with Madiha Yousri, Emad Hamdi, Shadia, Farid Shawqi, and Huda Sultan in the "Mercy Train" trips, which the revolution ordered to run in 1953 between the governorates of Lower and Upper Egypt. He and other artists performed to comfort patients in hospitals and social welfare centers.

Fawzi sang many songs he composed for films. He also composed for many singers of his era, such as Mohamed Abdel-Mottaleb, Laila Mourad, Nazik, Huda Sultan, Najah Salam, and many others.

Mohamed Fawzi married his first wife, Huda, in 1943. They had three children: Nabil (born 1944), Samir (born 1946), and Munir (born 1948), before divorcing in 1952. Later that same year, he married the actress Madiha Yousri, with whom he had a son, Amr (born 1955). Two of his sons with Madiha Yousri predeceased him. They divorced in 1959. In 1960, he married his third wife, Karima (actress), and they had their daughter, Iman, in 1961. She remained with him until his death.