Iconic Egyptian actor Mahmoud Abdel Aziz dies aged 70

Aziz died Saturday evening "in hospital in Cairo, at the end of his fight against illness," Sameh al-Sirity, from the Egyptian Actors' Syndicate, told AFP.

His funeral will be held on Sunday in a mosque in a suburb of the capital.

Born in 1946 in the coastal city of Alexandria, Aziz cut his teeth in a string of television series before making the leap to the big screen.

He was most known for his role in the 1991 film Al Kit-Kat, where he played an eccentric blind man who dreams of riding a motorcycle.

Although a comedy, the film, directed by Egyptian realist filmmaker Daoud Abdel Sayed, was critically acclaimed for its searing social commentary.

In 2001's The Magician, Aziz plays a single father who falls in love with his next-door neighbour, whose husband has recently left her to raise her son alone.

Aziz, who was admired for his ability to reinvent himself throughout his career, took a controversial role in Raafat El-Hagan, a 1980s television drama depicting the life of an Egyptian spy in Israel.

He was married to Egyptian actress Poussy Chalabi and is survived by two sons, Mohamed and Karim.