CAIRO — Famed Egyptian actor Nour el-Sherif died on Tuesday. He was 69. The Egyptian state news agency said he died after battling an unspecified long illness.

El-Sherif’s big break was in the late 1960s when he played a supporting role in “The Palace of Desire,” the screen adaptation of one of the novels in a trilogy by Egyptian Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz. He went on to become one of the Arab world’s top male actors for much of the 1970s and 1980s in the heydays of Egyptian cinema.

He played a wealthy polygamous man in the 2001 show “The Family of Hag Metwaly.”

One of his later roles was a part in “The Yacoubian Building,” a 2006 adaptation of a best-selling novel about Egyptian society and politics.

He was a favorite of Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, playing major roles in his films.

He was married to fellow actress Poussi and costarred in several movies with her, before divorcing in 2006. They had two daughters.