Omar Sharif

Omar Sharif

Birth name: Michel Dimitri Chalhoub
Born: April 10, 1932
Died: July 10, 2015 (at age 83)
Birthplace: Alexandria, Egypt
Popularity:
Biography

Omar Sharif (Arabic: عمر الشريف‎‎, ; born Michel Dimitri Chalhoub ; 10 April 1932 - 10 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor. He began his career in his native country in the 1950s, but is best known for his appearances in both British and American productions. His films included Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Funny Girl (1968). He was nominated for an Academy Award. He won three Golden Globe Awards and a César Award.

Sharif, who spoke Arabic, English, Greek, French, Spanish and Italian fluently, was often cast as a foreigner of some sort. He bridled at travel restrictions imposed during the reign of Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, leading to self-exile in Europe. The estrangement this caused led to an amicable divorce from his wife, the iconic Egyptian actress Faten Hamama. He had converted to Islam in order to marry her. He was a lifelong horse racing enthusiast, and at one time ranked among the world's top contract bridge players.

Early life

Omar Sharif, whose surname means "noble" or "nobleman" in Arabic, was born on 10 April 1932, as Michel Dimitri Chalhoub in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Melkite Catholic family of Lebanese descent. His father, Joseph Chalhoub, a precious woods merchant originally from Zahlé, Lebanon, moved to the port city of Alexandria in the early 20th century, where Sharif was later born. His family moved to Cairo when he was four. His mother, Claire Saada, was a noted society hostess, and Egypt's King Farouk was a regular visitor prior to his deposition in 1952.

In his youth, Sharif studied at Victoria College, Cairo, where he showed a talent for languages. He later graduated from Cairo University with a degree in mathematics and physics. He then worked for a while in his father's precious wood business before studying acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In 1955, Sharif changed his name and converted to Islam in order to marry fellow Egyptian actress Faten Hamama.

Acting career

In 1954, Sharif began his acting career in his native Egypt with a role in Shaytan Al-Sahra ("Devil of the Desert"). In the same year he appeared in Sira` Fi al-Wadi ("Struggle in the Valley"). He quickly rose to stardom, appearing in Egyptian productions, including La Anam ("Sleepless") in 1958, Sayyidat al-Qasr ("Lady of the Palace") in 1959 and the Anna Karenina adaptation Nahr el hub ("The River of Love") in 1961. He also starred with his wife, Egyptian actress Faten Hamama, in several movies as romantic leads.

Sharif's first English-language role was that of Sherif Ali in David Lean's historical epic Lawrence of Arabia in 1962. This performance earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, as well as a shared Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actor. Casting Sharif in what is now considered one of the "most demanding supporting roles in Hollywood history", was both complex and risky, as he was virtually unknown at the time outside of Egypt. However, as historian Steven Charles Caton notes, Lean insisted on using ethnic actors when possible to make the film authentic. Sharif would later use his ambiguous ethnicity in other films which enhanced his career: "I spoke French, Greek, Italian, Spanish and even Arabic", he said. Furthermore, as Sharif notes, his accent enabled him to "play the role of a foreigner without anyone knowing exactly where I came from", which he stated proved highly successful throughout his career.

Over the next few years, Sharif co-starred in other films, including Behold a Pale Horse (1964). Director Fred Zinnemann said he chose Sharif partly on the suggestion of David Lean. "He said he was an absolutely marvelous actor,'If you possibly can take a look at him.'" Film historian Richard Schickel wrote that Sharif gave a "truly wonderful performance", especially noteworthy because of his totally different role in Lawrence of Arabia: "It is hard to believe that the priest and the sheik are played by the same man". Sharif also played a Yugoslav wartime patriot in The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964), the Mongolian conqueror in Genghis Khan (1965), a German military officer in The Night of the Generals (1967), Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria in Mayerling (1968) and Che Guevara in Che! (1969).

In 1965, Sharif reunited with Lean in order to play the title role in the epic love story Doctor Zhivago (1965), an adaptation of Boris Pasternak's 1957 novel, which was banned in the USSR for 30 years. Set during World War I and the Russian Revolution, Sharif played the role of Yuri Zhivago, a poet and physician. Film historian Constantine Santas explained that Lean intended the film to be a poetic portrayal of the period, with large vistas of landscapes combined with a powerful score by Maurice Jarre. He notes that Sharif's role is "passive", his eyes reflecting "reality" which then become "the mirror of reality we ourselves see". In a commentary on the DVD (2001 edition), Sharif described Lean's style of directing as similar to a general commanding an army. For his performance, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, while the film received ten Academy Award nominations, but Sharif was not nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Sharif was also acclaimed for his portrayal of Nicky Arnstein in Funny Girl (1968). He portrayed the husband of Fanny Brice, played by Barbra Streisand in her first film role. His decision to work alongside Streisand angered Egypt's government because she was Jewish, and the country condemned the film. It was also "immediately banned" in numerous Arab nations. Streisand herself jokingly responded, "You think Cairo was upset? You should've seen the letter I got from my Aunt Rose!". Sharif and Streisand became romantically involved during the filming. He admitted later that he did not find Streisand attractive at first, but her appeal soon overwhelmed him: "About a week from the moment I met her", he recalled, "I was madly in love with her. I thought she was the most gorgeous girl I'd ever seen in my life...I found her physically beautiful, and I started lusting after this woman." Sharif reprised the role in the film's sequel, Funny Lady in 1975.

Among Sharif's other films were the western Mackenna's Gold (1969), playing an outlaw opposite Gregory Peck; the thriller Juggernaut (1974), which co-starred Richard Harris, and the romantic drama The Tamarind Seed (1974), co-starring Julie Andrews, and directed by Blake Edwards. Sharif also contributed comic cameo performances in Edwards' The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) and in the 1984 spy-film spoof Top Secret! In 2003, he received acclaim for his leading role in Monsieur Ibrahim, a French-language film adaptation of the novel Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran, as a Muslim Turkish merchant who becomes a father figure for a Jewish boy. For this performance, Sharif received the César Award for Best Actor. Sharif's later film roles included performances in Hidalgo (2004) and Rock the Casbah (2013).

Sharif's final role was as lead actor in the short science education film 1001 Inventions and the World of Ibn Al-Haytham, which was directed by Ahmed Salim for 1001 Inventions, and was released as part of the United Nations' International Year of Light campaign, operated by UNESCO.

Contract bridge career

Sharif once ranked among the world's top 50 contract bridge players, and played in an exhibition match before the Shah of Iran. With Charles Goren, Sharif co-wrote a syndicated newspaper bridge column for the Chicago Tribune for several years, but mostly turned over the writing of the column to Tannah Hirsch. He was also both author and co-author of several books on bridge and licensed his name to a bridge video game; initially released in an MS-DOS version and Amiga version in 1992, Omar Sharif on Bridge is still sold in Windows and mobile platform versions. Computer Gaming World in 1992 described the game as "easy to get into, challenging to play and well-designed", and named it one of the year's best strategy games. In 1993 the magazine stated that "it does not play a very good game of bridge", however, and criticized it for inadequate documentation and forcing players to conform to its bidding style. The magazine recommended two other bridge games instead.

Sharif was a regular in casinos in France.

Personal life

Family and personal relationships

Sharif lived in his native Egypt from his birth in 1932 until he moved to Europe in 1965. He recounted that in 1932, his father "wasn't a wealthy man", but "earned quite a bit of money". Before the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, King Farouk frequented Sharif's family home, and became a friend and card-game partner of Sharif's mother. His mother was an elegant and charming hostess who was all too delighted with the association because it gave her the privilege of "consorting only with the elite" of Egyptian society. Sharif also recounted that his father's timber business was very successful during that time, in ways that Sharif describes as dishonest or immoral. By contrast, after 1952, Sharif stated that wealth changed hands in Egypt, under Nasser's nationalisation policies. His father's business "took a beating".

In 1954 Sharif starred in the film Struggle in the Valley opposite Faten Hamama, who shared a kiss with him, although she had previously refused to kiss on screen. The two fell in love; Sharif converted to Islam and married her. They had one son, Tarek Sharif, born in 1957 in Egypt, who appeared in Doctor Zhivago as Yuri at the age of eight. The couple separated in 1966 and their marriage ended in divorce in 1974. Sharif never remarried; he stated that after his divorce he never fell in love with another woman again.

The Nasser government imposed travel restrictions in the form of "exit visas", so Sharif's travel to take part in international films was sometimes impeded, something he found to be intolerable. These restrictions influenced Sharif's decision to remain in Europe between his film shoots, a decision that cost him his marriage to Faten Hamama, though they remained friends. It was a major crossroads in Sharif's life and changed him from an established family man to a committed bachelor living in European hotels. When commenting about his fame and life in Hollywood, Sharif said, "It gave me glory, but it gave me loneliness also. And a lot of missing my own land, my own people and my own country". When Sharif's affair with Barbra Streisand was made public in the Egyptian press, his Egyptian citizenship was almost withdrawn by the Egyptian government because of Streisand's Jewish descent and vocal support of Israel, which was then in a state of war with Egypt.

Sharif became friends with Peter O'Toole during the making of Lawrence of Arabia. They appeared in several other films together and remained close friends. He was also good friends with Egyptologist Zahi Hawass. Actor and friend Tom Courtenay revealed in an interview for the July 19, 2008 edition of BBC Radio's Test Match Special that Sharif supported Hull City Association Football Club and in the 1970s he would telephone their automated scoreline from his home in Paris for score updates. Sharif was given an honorary degree by the University of Hull in 2010 and he used the occasion to meet Hull City football player Ken Wagstaff. Sharif also had an interest in horse racing spanning more than 50 years. He had a long friendship with racehorse trainer David Smaga and Sharif was often seen at French racecourses, with Deauville-La Touques Racecourse being his favourite. Sharif's horses won a number of important races and he had his best successes with Don Bosco, who won the Prix Gontaut-Biron, Prix Perth and Prix du Muguet. He also wrote for a French horse racing magazine.

In later life, Sharif lived mostly in Cairo with his family. In addition to his son, he had two grandsons, Omar (born 1983 in Montreal) and Karim. The younger Omar Sharif is also an actor.

Health problems and death

Sharif had a triple heart bypass in 1992 and suffered a mild heart attack in 1994. Until his bypass, Sharif smoked 100 cigarettes a day. He quit smoking after the operation.

In May 2015 it was reported that Sharif was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. His son Tarek Sharif said that his father was becoming confused when remembering some of the biggest films of his career; he would mix up the names of his best-known films, Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, often forgetting where they were filmed.

On 10 July 2015, less than six months after Hamama's death at the same age, Sharif died after suffering a heart attack at a hospital in Cairo, Egypt. He was 83.

On 12 July 2015, Sharif's funeral was held at the Grand Mosque of Mushir Tantawi in eastern Cairo. The funeral was attended by a group of Sharif's relatives, friends and Egyptian actors, his casket draped in the Egyptian flag and a black shroud. His coffin was later taken to the El-Sayeda Nafisa cemetery in southern Cairo, where he was buried.

Awards

In November 2005, Sharif was awarded the inaugural Sergei Eisenstein Medal by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in recognition of his significant contributions to world film and cultural diversity. The medal, which is awarded very infrequently, is named after Russian director Sergei Eisenstein. Only 25 have been struck, as determined by the agreement between UNESCO, Russia's Mosfilm and the Vivat Foundation.

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1954 Shaytan al-Sahra Known as Devil of the Sahara
1954 Sira` Fi al-Wadi Ahmed Also known as The Blazing Sun or Struggle in the Valley or Fight in the Valley
1955 Ayyamna al-Holwa Ahmed Also known as Our Best Days
1956 Sira` Fi al-Mina Ragab Also known as A Fight Within the Port
1957 Ard al-Salam Ahmed Known as Land of Peace
1957 La Châtelaine du Liban Mokrir Also known as The Lebanese Mission; credited as Omar Cherif
1958 La Anam Aziz Also known as Sleepless and No Tomorrow
Goha Goha Credited as Omar Cherif
1959 Sayyidat al-Qasr Adel Lady of the Palace
Siraa fil Nil Muhassab Struggle on the Nile
1960 Bidaya wa Nihaya Hassanien Also known as A Beginning and an End
Hobi al-Wahid My Only Love
Esha'a hob Hussein A Rumor of Love
Nahr al-Hob Khalid The River of Love
1961 Fi Baytouna Ragoul Ibrahim Also known as في بيتنا رجل A Man in our House
1962 Lawrence of Arabia Sherif Ali Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actor
Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1964 The Fall of the Roman Empire Sohamus
Behold a Pale Horse Francisco
The Yellow Rolls-Royce Davich
1965 Genghis Khan Genghis Khan
Marco the Magnificent Sheik Alla Hou, 'The Desert Wind'
Doctor Zhivago Dr. Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1966 The Poppy Is Also a Flower Dr. Rad
1967 The Night of the Generals Major Grau
More Than a Miracle Prince Rodrigo Fernandez
1968 Funny Girl Nick Arnstein
Mayerling Archduke Rudolf
1969 Mackenna's Gold Colorado
The Appointment Frenderico Fendi
Che! Che Guevara
1970 The Last Valley Vogel
1971 The Horsemen Uraz
The Burglars Abel Zacharia simultaneously shot in French as Le Casse with the same cast
1974 The Tamarind Seed Feodor Sverdlov
Juggernaut Captain Alex Brunel
1975 Funny Lady Nicky Arnstein
1976 Ace Up My Sleeve Andre Ferren also known as Crime and Passion
The Pink Panther Strikes Again Egyptian assassin uncredited cameo
1979 Ashanti: Land of No Mercy Prince Hassan
Bloodline Ivo Palazzi
1980 S*H*E Baron Cesare Magnasco S*H*E: Security Hazards Expert
The Baltimore Bullet The Deacon
Oh! Heavenly Dog Bart
1981 Green Ice Meno Argenti
Inchon Indian officer uncredited cameo
1984 Top Secret! Agent Cedric
1987 Grand Larceny Rashid Saud
1988 The Possessed Stepan Les Possédés
Les Pyramides bleues (fr) Alex The Novice
1989 Al-aragoz Mohamed Gad El Kareem The Puppeteer
1990 The Rainbow Thief Dima
1991 War in the Land of Egypt Known as El Mowaten Masri or An Egyptian Citizen
1992 Beyond Justice Emir Beni-Zair
Mayrig Hagop
588 rue paradis Hagop Mother
1993 Dehk we le'b we gad we hob Laughter, Games, Seriousness and Love
1997 Heaven Before I Die Khalil Gibran
1998 Mysteries of Egypt Grandfather Documentary
1999 The 13th Warrior Melchisideck
2001 The Parole Officer Victor
2003 Monsieur Ibrahim Monsieur Ibrahim César Award for Best Actor
2004 Hidalgo Sheikh Riyadh
2006 One Night with the King Prince Memucan
2008 Hassan & Marcus Hassan/Morcus Hassan wa Morcus
10,000 BC Narrator Voice only
2009 The Traveller Older Hassan Commonly known as Al Mosafer
J'ai oublié de te dire Jaume I forgot to Tell You
2013 Rock the Casbah Moulay Hassan
2015 1001 Inventions and the World of Ibn Al-Haytham Grandfather Final film lead role
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1973 The Mysterious Island Captain Nemo TV miniseries; also known as L'Ile Mysterieuse
1984 The Far Pavilions Koda Dad TV miniseries, based on The Far Pavilions
1986 Peter the Great Prince Feodor Romodanovsky TV miniseries
Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna Czar Nicholas II TV miniseries
1991 Memories of Midnight Constantin Demiris TV movie
1992 Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris Marquis Hippolite TV Movie
1995 Catherine the Great Razumovsky TV movie
1996 Gulliver's Travels The Sorcerer TV miniseries
2001 Shaka Zulu: The Citadel The King TV movie
2005 Imperium: Saint Peter Saint Peter TV movie
2006 The Ten Commandments Jethro TV miniseries
2007 Hanan W Haneen Raouf Egyptian TV series, also known as Tenderness and Nostalgia
2008 The Last Templar Konstantine TV series

[ Source: Wikipedia ]


Terms Privacy Join Contact
Contact Any Star FanPal • 2024