George bin Elias Abyad was a renowned actor of Arab theater. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Abyad received his education at Collège des Frères and continued his education at the School of Wisdom, where he got his first taste of the theater. Though he spent much of his youth working in Beirut, he eventaully travelled to Egypt and joined an amateur theater team. He later received a scholarship to study in France with the help of the Khediv Abbas Hilmi. Upon his return, Abyad created a theatrical group, produced several international plays and taught the art of diction at the Higher Institute of Theatrical Arts. He travelled throughout several Arab countries with his band and the Egyptian Ministry of Culture later made a statue in his honor at the Higher Institute of Arts. Abyad was the first to produce a spoken film in Egypt in 1932 and is considered one of the founders of the Higher Institute of Representation. Among his notable plays include Louis XI of France, The King’s Clown, Sultan Saladin, and The Kingdom of Jerusalem.