For twelve years, Farouk of Egypt wandered in exile. In public he wore dark glasses and was accompanied by two bodyguards who fended off newsmen and curious bystanders. In private Farouk endlessly pursued women and was reputed to know every call girl in Rome by name. When a starlet appeared on the Via Veneto with a new piece of jewelry, friends would examine it and ask "Farouk?"
Fat, flabby, 45-year-old Farouk symbolized the gross results of a classically misspent life. Last week he died as he had lived — gorging himself on fine food with a willowy blonde at his side. The end came in Rome's Ile de France restaurant on the ancient Aurelian Way near Vatican City. Accompanied by blonde Anna Maria Gatti, 28, Farouk dined at midnight on oysters, roast lamb, cake and fruit. At 1:30 in the morning, as he enjoyed a postprandial cigar, Farouk said he felt faint, clutched at his throat and fell forward on the table. An ambulance was summoned and Farouk was placed in an oxygen tent at the hospital. Minutes later he was dead, apparently of a heart attack. Found on Farouk's body were a gold wedding ring, a cigarette lighter, a watch, a pill box initialed 'F,' a pair of dark glasses, a loaded Beretta automatic, identity pa pers, and a billfold containing $115 in Italian lire and $2,500 in U.S. bills.
Regular Tours. The young King who took over as ruler of Egypt in 1936 seemed hardly destined for such a sordid end. At the death of his father, King Fuad, he had been recalled from Britain's Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Farouk was then a tall, handsome youth of 16 who took pride in his position as Egypt's Chief Boy Scout. After a two-year regency, Farouk got full power and pledged he would be "the first servant of my country."
His reign began auspiciously. Farouk diligently toured Egypt and was acutely aware of the crushing, age-old poverty of the fellahin. On the advice of his Oxford-educated tutor, Ahmed Hassaneen Pasha, Farouk became interested in social reform. In the war years, Farouk and Hassaneen regularly toured bombed areas of Cairo and Alexandria.
Corrupt Courtiers. After the war, Farouk increased his influence in the Middle East by founding the Arab League. Then his first marriage, to Queen Farida, who had borne him three daughters, broke up, and trusted Hassaneen Pasha died of a heart attack. Hassaneen was replaced by an unsavory crew ranging from Pulley Bey, a former Italian barber and electrician, to Kareem Tabet, a wily Lebanese newsman. Farouk was soon gambling away his nights at the card tables of Cairo's Royal Automobile Club or touring the Riviera circuit, where he rented 30-room hotel suites and sometimes dropped more than $100,000 a week at the casinos. His name was repeatedly linked with belly dancers and beauty queens. The Arab-Israeli war of 1948 ended in a crushing Egyptian defeat, and army officers grumbled that the fault lay with Farouk's corrupt courtiers who, they claimed, had got huge gains by supplying the army with shells that wouldn't fire and grenades that went off as soon as the pin was removed.