Legendary Egyptian actor Omar Sharif dies at the age of 83

[Saif al-Arab]

Legendary Egyptian actor Omar Sharif dies at 83

The cinematic icon, who starred in classics "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Doctor Zhivago", died of a heart attack in Cairo.

10 Jul 2015 22:01 GMT | Arts & Culture, Middle East, Egypt

Even at old age, Omar Sharif continued to be active in Western and Egyptian cinema [AP]
​

Omar Sharif, the Egyptian-born actor who soared to international stardom in two classics, "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Doctor Zhivago", has died. He was 83.

Sharif's longtime agent, Steve Kenis, told The Associated Press on Friday that Sharif died of a heart attack in a Cairo hospital. Sharif had been suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Sharif's son tweeted "Al-Baqa Lillah", which translates to "God remains" or "rest in peace".

Sharif was one of the few Arab actors to make it big in Hollywood. He won international fame and an Oscar-nomination for best supporting actor for his role in the 1962 film "Lawrence of Arabia" with Peter O'Toole.

Born as Michel Shalhoub on April 10, 1932, to a wealthy family in Alexandria, Egypt, Sharif grew interested in acting while studying mathematics and physics at university in Cairo.​

Omar Sharif was nominated for an Oscar for his role in "Lawrence of Arabia" with Peter O'Toole [AP] ​

But he worked in his father's timber business for several years before realising his dream with a role in an Egyptian movie, "The Blazing Sun," in 1954 opposite the Middle East's biggest female star, Faten Hamama.

Raised as a Roman Catholic, Sharif converted to Islam and married Hamama in 1955, taking on his new name. They had a son, Tarek, who played Yuri in "Doctor Zhivago" at age 8, but the couple divorced in 1974.

Despite Sharif's image as a eligible bachelor, he did not remarry, saying he never fell in love with another woman.

'Extremely lucky'

"I've always been extremely lucky in my life," he told Al Jazeera in 2007, while reflecting on how he "might have been happier" staying in Egypt where he had a contented family life and already was a star.

"Even for 'Lawrence of Arabia' I didn't ask to be an international actor," he said.

"When going to America and becoming famous, it gave me glory but it gave me loneliness also and a lot of missing my own land and my own people and my own family."
After "The Blazing Sun," Sharif had appeared in several other Egyptian films before starring in 1958 in the French love story "Goha," which was seen in many English-speaking countries.

With more Egyptian movies to his credit, he was picked by director David Lean to play Sherif Ali in the 1962 epic "Lawrence of Arabia" alongside O'Toole, Alec Guinness and Anthony Quinn.

His portrayal of Lawrence's friend earned Sharif an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor and a contract with Columbia Studios. It won him renewed admiration when the film was restored and re-released in 1989.

'Not that kind of actor'

After "Lawrence of Arabia," Sharif played Sophia Loren's Armenian husband in "The Fall of the Roman Empire," a Spanish priest in "Behold a Pale Horse," Ingrid Bergman's Yugoslav lover in "The Yellow Rolls-Royce," all in 1964, and the title character in "Genghis Khan" in 1965.

Then came the title role in "Doctor Zhivago," the story of a physician and poet caught up in the Russian revolution. Despite criticism, the film and Sharif were a hit.

Confirming his flexibility, Sharif next played a Nazi officer in "The Night of the Generals," a Jewish gambler in "Funny Girl" opposite Barbra Streisand and an Austrian prince in "Mayerling." In 1969, he was a Mexican villain in "Mackenna's Gold," an Italian lawyer in "The Appointment" and a Latin revolutionary in "Che!"

But only "Funny Girl" was a success and Sharif came under increasing criticism for stiff and uninspired performances.

On the set of "Mayerling," he was asked about his approach to playing Prince Rudolph. "I haven't a clue. I'm not that kind of actor," he said. "I play Rudolph like I play all my parts. Rudolph is me. I don't give a damn about how his mind works. All I care about is getting to the studio on time and remembering my lines."

In later years, Sharif appeared in TV mini-series and a steady string of films. For his 2003 role as an elderly Muslim shopkeeper in the French film "Monsieur Ibrahim," he won the best actor award at the Venice Film Festival.

Reportedly fluent in Arabic, English, Greek and French, Sharif became known for his passion for bridge and thoroughbred race horses. He wrote many books and newspaper columns about bridge and licensed his name to a computer game called "Omar Sharif Bridge".

"I'd rather be playing bridge than making a bad movie," he was once quoted as saying.

But in 2006, Sharif said he had given it up.

"I decided I didn't want to be a slave to any passion any more except for my work," he said in 2006.

"I had too many passions - bridge, horses, gambling. I want to live a different kind of life, be with my family more because I didn't give them enough time."​

Omar Sharif, who played the part of Ali in 'Lawrence of Arabia', arrives for the premiere in Hollywood December 1962 [AP]

Legendary Egyptian actor Omar Sharif dies at 83 - Al Jazeera English

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Omar Sharif dies at the age of 83​

The star of Doctor Zhivago, Funny Girl and Lawrence of Arabia died of a heart attack in Cairo on Friday, according to his agent.

Omar Sharif in 1968, around the time he shot Funny Girl. Photograph: Everett/Rex Shutterstock
​

Omar Sharif has died at the age of 83. The Egyptian actor, best known for roles in Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, suffered a heart attack in Cairo on Friday, his agent Steve Kenis said.

In May his son revealed the star had been suffering from Alzheimer’s. His son, Tarek Sharif, and two grandsons survive him.

Sharif, who was one of the few Arab actors to achieve mainstream Hollywood success, grew up in Cairo. In an interview in 2012, he recalled how his mother would socialise with King Farouk as well as dole out regular beatings to her son.

“By night she would play cards, by day she would give me the slipper,” he said. “She hit me on my backside every day till I was 14. She was an extraordinary woman – she lived till 1998. I was very close to her, even though she beat me all the time!”

Sharif was Oscar-nominated for his role in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and went on to win a Golden Globe for his performance. It was his first English-language role after appearing in over 20 Egyptian films.

He spoke about the film to the Guardian in 2012: “When I made this film I thought: ‘This is a crazy thing. There are no girls, no very famous actors at that time, only men and no action, not a lot of action. Not a lot of fights.’ It was so good because the director was a brilliant man. That’s the truth. David Lean was a great, great man.”

Omar Sharif with Julie Christie in David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago.​

He soon became a major Hollywood player and followed his breakthrough performance with roles in Behold a Pale Horse alongside Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn, and in the 1965 epic Genghis Khan, playing the title role. In the same year, he reunited with Lean to star in Doctor Zhivago, which earned him another Golden Globe.

Sharif also starred alongside Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl and its sequel, Funny Lady. His decision to work with Streisand, who supported the State of Israel, angered the Egyptian government.

Speaking to the Guardian in 2004, he conceded not all of his back catalogue were classics. Three since 1972 were “really bad,” he said. “To learn bad dialogue is so difficult and so boring,” he said, “and to work with a stupid director who tells you to do the wrong thing, etcetera, it’s just unbearable.”

Sharif worked less frequently in recent years, and his last role was in 2013 drama Rock the Casbah. He has one film still to be released: a short called 1001 Inventions and the World of Ibn Al-Haytham.

Off-screen, Sharif led an eventful life, even into his 70s. In 2003 the star was given a one-month suspended prison sentence and a €1,500 fine for head-butting a policeman in a Parisian casino. In 2005 he was ordered to attend anger management classes and served two years probation after assaulting a Beverly Hills parking valet.

He was caught on video in 2011, apparently slapping a journalist after she attempted to take a photo with him at the Doha international film festival.

As well as being an unlikely supporter of Hull City Football Club, Sharif was a world-renowned bridge player, and recently developed an iPhone app around the card game. In November 2005, he received Unesco’s Sergei Eisenstein medal in recognition of his contributions to world film and cultural diversity.

Stars have been paying tribute to the late actor on Twitter. Antonio Banderas, who acted alongside him in The 13th Warrior, tweeted: “My great friend Omar Sharif has passed away. I will always miss him. He was one of the best. D.E.P.” Roland Emmerich, who directed him in 10,000 BC,tweeted: “Very saddened by the passing of Omar Sharif. Blessed that I was able to work with such a legend. Love to the family.”

Omar Sharif dies at the age of 83 | Film | The Guardian

One of the best actors of his era and one of the very best Arab actors of all-time. Very sad and may he rest in peace.

@Frogman @Kamal_dbk @Hell NO @Mahmoud_EGY @Amir_Pharaoh @Dr.Thrax @SALMAN AL-FARSI @Malik Alashter @Full Moon @BLACKEAGLE @Ahmed Jo etc.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Omar Sharif obituary

Hollywood heart-throb whose career was launched by Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago

The actor Omar Sharif, who has died aged 83, was introduced to the international screen in one of the most dramatic star entrances of film history. This was the scene in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) in which Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) first makes contact with the Arab chieftain Sherif Ali (Sharif), who will become his key ally in the desert fighting, and the latter, in a daringly protracted sequence, develops from a speck on the horizon into a towering, huge horseman, rifle at the ready.

Sharif was instantly elevated by this debut into a major box-office figure, and went on to star in a succession of big-budget films during the 1960s, most notably the contrasting blockbuster hits Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Funny Girl (1968), as perhaps the last of the “exotic” Hollywood heartthrobs in line of descent from Rudolph Valentino.

This situation, however, proved comparatively short-lived. Almost like the protagonist of a Victorian novel, Sharif was overtaken by his own success, to the extent that in order to service the debts incurred by gambling and a playboy lifestyle, he was thrown back on accepting any work that came his way, and entered a downward spiral into trivial and meretricious movies.

He was born Michel Chalhoub in Alexandria, the son of well-to-do Lebanese-Syrian Christians, Claire (nee Saada) and Joseph Chalhoub, and educated at a private school and at Cairo University. He worked briefly and reluctantly in his father’s lumber business but fell for the lure of acting, and was delighted when a friend, the director Youssef Chahine, offered him a role in the film Struggle in the Valley (1954). The female star was Faten Hamama, who was greatly taken by her leading man and in the same year became his wife, Sharif converting to Islam in the process. The marriage lasted for 20 years and the couple had a son, Tarek, who was to make a brief appearance in Doctor Zhivago in the guise of Yuri Zhivago’s childhood self.

Sharif became established as a principal figure in Egyptian cinema and also starred in the French-backed Goha (1958), which afforded him wider recognition, if only in the arthouses.

But it was his selection by the producer Sam Spiegel and the director David Leanto play Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia that proved the turning point in his career. As he later observed: “Maybe if I hadn’t made Lawrence, I would have gone on living in Cairo and had five children and lots of grandchildren.” He blamed the eventual failure of his marriage on the simple fact of his constant absences in Europe and the US.

The role of Sherif Ali was pivotal in the film’s dramatic scheme, and Sharif’s swarthy, romantic aura was played off to great effect against the blue-eyed blondness of O’Toole’s Lawrence. The two became close friends while making the film. Sharif’s performance won him Golden Globe awards as best supporting actor and most promising newcomer, as well as an Academy Award nomination, though he ruefully recalled that he had signed a contract with the studio that netted him only £8,000 for this and several subsequent appearances.

Fluent in English and French, he worked steadily for the next few years, though as an all-purpose “foreigner”, mainstream cinema never having been especially concerned about precise ethnicity. Thus he played a Spanish priest in Behold a Pale Horse (1964), the title role in a comic-strip historical extravaganza, Genghis Khan (1965), a Yugoslav partisan in The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964), and even, a little later, a Nazi officer, complete with blond-streaked hair, in The Night of the Generals (1967).
Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago (1965), directed by David Lean. Photograph: Allstar/MGM

Omar Sharif as the Arab chieftain Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Photograph: Allstar/Columbia​

But it was as the Russian hero of Lean’s Doctor Zhivago that he achieved his best-remembered screen role, a brooding, magnetic presence, even if some critics felt that the performance, like the whole film, manifested a degree of shallowness.

There was no doubt about his box-office stature, though, and it was revealing that the film version of the musical Funny Girl, which in the theatre had been an unabashed vehicle for Barbra Streisand, was marketed on the basis of her co-starring with Sharif. As the shady gambler Nicky Arnstein, by whom Fanny Brice (Streisand) was enslaved, Sharif was the essence of thehomme fatal, and even weighed in with a couple of song numbers. There were rumours at the time that the stars’ relationship had blossomed off-screen too, a notion that was ill received in Sharif’s native land in the light of Streisand’s pro-Israeli sympathies.

Sharif later admitted that he had briefly imagined himself in love with Streisand, and also recalled being smitten by Ava Gardner, his co-star in Mayerling (1968), in which he brought a suitable intensity to the doomed Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, and Gardner, with some incongruity, played his mother.

Mayerling was hardly a distinguished film, but was considerably superior to some others in which Sharif went on to appear, not least Che! (1969), a dully temporising Hollywood account of the life of Che Guevara, in which at one point Sharif’s Guevara is confronted by Jack Palance’s Fidel Castro with the mumbled expostulation: “Che, sometimes I just don’t understand you.”

The Last Valley (1971) and The Horsemen (1971) were poorly rated would-be spectacles. It seems significant that in the French-made thriller The Burglars (1971), Sharif was cast opposite a contemporary European box-office favourite, Jean-Paul Belmondo, but in the guise of a stereotypical scheming villain, who ends up smothered by Belmondo in a deserted silo under tons of grain, an intimation of the fate that was to befall him professionally as he appeared in increasingly obscure productions.

But there were still one or two brighter spots to come. In 1975 he reprised the role of Arnstein in the Funny Girl sequel, Funny Lady, and the previous year gave one of his most effective, because downplayed, performances, as the captain of a stricken cruise liner in Juggernaut. Of his playing in this film, the American critic Pauline Kaelpercipiently remarked: “He is not allowed to smile the famous smile, or even to look soulfully lovesick. He is kept rather grim.”

At this time, Sharif was perhaps more readily associated with the game of bridge than with acting. Though he took it up in adult life, he developed into a world-class player. In addition to competing in international tournaments, he wrote a syndicated column on the subject for several years for the Chicago Tribune, was the author of several books on bridge, and licensed his name to a bridge computer game.

He was also an inveterate high-stakes gambler, a regular at the casinos of Paris and elsewhere, and at the racetrack in Deauville. He maintained that claims of his philandering were ill-founded, but his lifestyle certainly encompassed heavy drinking and smoking more than 50 cigarettes a day, at least until he underwentheart bypass surgery in 1993. And the cost was high in financial terms as well.

Professionally, he drifted from one minor role to the next in a run of TV movies and mini-series, often costume dramas of one kind or another, and mostly of the sort only liable to be found at off-peak hours on the more obscure channels. He candidly told a journalist in 2003 that “for 25 years I have been making rubbish movies”.

There were, moreover, some unedifying moments in his private life. In 2003, heheadbutted a policeman in a Paris casino rumpus and was subsequently fined and given a suspended jail term, tactlessly telling the press that to assault a cop was “the dream of every Frenchman”. Two years later, he slugged a parking attendant at a Beverly Hills restaurant. He was placed on probation and ordered to pay restitution.

But at least he had returned into the realms of serious acting by taking the leading role in the 2003 French movie Monsieur Ibrahim, in which his characterisation of an elderly Turkish Muslim shopkeeper secured him a best actor César award, the French equivalent of an Oscar.

In 2006 he declared that he had abandoned gambling and even bridge in favour of family life, and described himself as semi-retired from the screen.

In the previous year he had been the recipient of a Unesco medal for contributions to world cinema and cultural diversity. Lawrence and Zhivago might by then have seemed a long way in the past, but despite – or possibly even because of – the intervening vicissitudes of his life, Sharif’s reputation remained undimmed.

He is survived by his son and two grandsons.

• Omar Sharif, actor, born 10 April 1932; died 10 July 2015

Omar Sharif obituary | Film | The Guardian

 

[venu309]

Used to be one of my most favourite actors

 

[libertad]

I liked him in Hidalgo. His most renowned films Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago were a little ahead of my time. I'll try and watch them when I get a chance.

'Boldly spoken for a man with no wives.' I've never forgotten that quote from Hidalgo. RIP.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

I liked him in Hidalgo. His most renowned films Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago were a little ahead of my time. I'll try and watch them when I get a chance.

'Boldly spoken for a man with no wives.' I've never forgotten that quote from Hidalgo. RIP.

Watch the movie "Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran" from 2003 as well. His last leading role. He won the César award for that, the French equivalent of an Oscar. I watched it as a small kid when it came out in 2003.

Monsieur Ibrahim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

While you are at it watch La Haine as well.

 

[Bubblegum Crisis]

Quote :

Omar Sharif’s final film dedicated to his legacy

Published Date:
10/07/2015




Actor Omar Sharif’s final film “1001 Inventions and the World of Ibn Al-Haytham” has been dedicated to his legacy.

Legendary Oscar-nominated actor Omar Sharif, who died on Friday 10 July 2015 in a Cairo hospital following a heart attack, still has one more film to be released later this year.

British organisation 1001 Inventions is producing a short film that will be the last film for the late actor. Sharif’s leading role in the educational short film “1001 Inventions and the World of Ibn Al-Haytham” was his final performance.

Legendary Oscar-nominated actor Omar Sharif, who died on Friday 10 July 2015 in a Cairo hospital following a heart attack, still has one more film to be released later this year.

British organisation 1001 Inventions is producing a short film that will be the last film for the late actor. Sharif’s leading role in the educational shoce.

Ahmed Salim, Producer and Director of the film said:

“We were very saddened by the news of the legendary actor’s death. Working with Omar Sharif was an honour to all who worked on the production of the film. He worked tirelessly, despite the onset of his failing memory, to honour 11th century Arab scientist Ibn al-Haytham. Sharif came out of retirement specifically to do this film as he strongly believed it would help educate children all over the world about the origins of the scientific method, light science and the camera obscura. 1001 Inventions dedicates this film in his honour.”

Omar Sharif takes the lead role in the short film that brings to life the story of Ibn al-Haytham’s quest to discover the nature of light and vision. The partly animated storyline is intertwined with a live-action backstory starring Sharif, who guides in the quest of discovering Ibn al-Haytham’s journey to understand how we see, and the principles of light and optical theories.

Speaking earlier this year, Omar Sharif said:

“Most people don’t know that I studied physics before starting my acting career so honouring the scientist Ibn al-Haytham, the Arab grandfather of the camera obscura — the device that forms the basis of photography and cinematography — is of personal interest to me. I hope this educational film will spark ambition and creativity and will culminate my career with an inspiring message to young people to follow their dreams.”





Filmed in London, “1001 Inventions and the World of Ibn Al-Haytham” presents Omar Sharif as a knowledgeable older gentleman helping his granddaughter with her challenging science homework through narrating the thrilling story of Ibn al-Haytham.

The film, currently in post-production, stars Macey Chipping, voice over by Khalid Abdalla and music by Sami Yusuf. “1001 Inventions and the World of Ibn Al-Haytham” will be launched later this year as part of the United Nations proclaimed International Year of Light 2015. Award-winning British organisation 1001 Inventions brought together an international team of partners to produce the film and its accompanying educational resources including UNESCO, National Geographic, the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture and UAE-based company Blink Studios.

“Omar Sharif spent a life-time in the movie industry and we hope his final film will define his legacy by helping to educate and inspire young people,” added Ahmed Salim.”

Rest in peace…



...

 

[Hell NO]

The guy was a legend.
Loved his role in Mackenna's Gold.
and in hassan and Marcus aka when two legends meet.