Omar Sharif

Omar Sharif
Born	Michel Demitri Chalhoub April 10, 1932 (1932-04-10) (age 77) Alexandria, Egypt
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1954–present
Spouse(s)	Faten Hamama (1955–1974)

Omar Sharif (born Michael Demitri Shalhoub^[1]; Arabic: عمر الشريف; April 10, 1932) is an Egyptian actor who has starred in many Hollywood films. He is most famous for his roles in Doctor Zhivago, Funny Girl and Lawrence of Arabia. Sharif has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won a Golden Globe.

Personal life

Omar Sharif was born Michael Shalhoub in Alexandria, Egypt to Catholic parents.^[2] He graduated from Alexandria’s Victoria College, then from Cairo University with a mathematics and physics major.

In 1955, Omar El-Sharif converted to Islam and married Egyptian actress Faten Hamama.^[3] The couple had one son, Tarek El-Sharif, who appeared in Doctor Zhivago as Yuri at the age of eight. The marriage ended in 1974.

Sharif lived in his native Egypt from birth in 1932 till he moved to Europe in 1965.^[4] Omar recounts that, in 1932, his father "wasn't a wealthy man", but "earned quite a bit of money".^[5] Before the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, King Farouk frequented Omar's family's house, and became a friend and card game partner of Omar's mother. His mother was an elegant and charming host who was all too delighted with the association because it gave her the privilege of "consorting only with the elite" of Egyptian society. Omar also recounts that his father's timber business sky-rocketed during that time, in ways that Omar himself describes as dishonest or immoral.^[6]

By contrast, after 1952, Omar states^[7] that wealth changed hands (or names) in Egypt, under Nasser's nationalization policies. His father's business "took a beating". Travel restrictions in the form of "exit visas" were required of Egyptians, and his own travel to take part in international films was sometimes impeded, which he could not tolerate. The Nasser government's travel restrictions influenced Omar's decision to remain in Europe between his film shoots, a decision that cost him his marriage to Egyptian film legend Faten Hamama, though they remained friends. It was a major cross-roads in Omar's life and changed him from an established family man to a life-long bachelor living in European hotels. His Egyptian citizenship was almost withdrawn by Nasser's government when Omar's affair with Barbra Streisand (a loud supporter of Israel) was made public in the Egyptian press.^[8]

Sharif became friends with Peter O'Toole during the making of Lawrence of Arabia. They have appeared in several other films together and remain close friends. He is also good friends with Egyptologist Zahi Hawass.

Sharif underwent a triple bypass surgery in 1992, and suffered a mild heart attack in 1994. Sharif had smoked 50 cigarettes a day; after the surgery, he quit easily.^{[citation needed]}

In a 2002 interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Omar Sharif stated that he and his son Tarek were atheists.^[9] Sharif is fluent in Arabic, English, Greek, and French. He also speaks some Italian, Spanish and Turkish.^[10]

On August 5, 2003, he received a one-month suspended prison sentence for striking a police officer in a suburban Parisian casino in July. He was fined $1700 and ordered to pay the officer $340 in damages. (He had insulted and then head-butted the Pontoise policeman, who tried to intervene in an argument between the actor and a roulette croupier.)^{[citation needed]} On February 13, 2007 Sharif was "found guilty of assaulting a Beverly Hills parking lot attendant and breaking his nose".^[11]

According to The Middle East Media Research Institute, Omar Sharif said the "East" will never have a democracy because people like him "prefer to go to the neighborhood chief (شيخ الحارة), instead of Democracy." MEMRI posted an interview of Sharif that aired on the Al-Hayat TV network on June 8, 2008. In the interview, Sharif reportedly blasted U.S. policy in Iraq and said Americans are ignorant. Sharif also claimed to have spoken with U.S President George W. Bush before the beginning of the Iraq War, telling him that Arabs were not like regular people and that Arab nations were made up of sects resistant to becoming democratized.^[12]

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 and in the 1970s would telephone their automated scoreline from his home in Paris for score updates.

At present, Omar Sharif resides mostly in Cairo with his family.

Pastimes

Sharif, once among the world's best known contract bridge players, co-wrote a syndicated newspaper bridge column for the Chicago Tribune^[13] for several years. He is also both author and co-author of several books on bridge and has licensed his name to a bridge computer game; initially released in a DOS version in 1992, Omar Sharif Bridge is still sold in Windows and "mobile platform" versions.^[14] For a number of years his partner at international tournaments was American football coach Tommy Prothro.

Sharif has been a regular in casinos in France, where he once assaulted a casino employee after losing thousands of dollars on a single roulette bet.^[15]

In 2006 Sharif declared both pastimes as ended when he was asked if he still played bridge: "I've stopped altogether. I decided I didn't want to be a slave to any passion any more except for my work. 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."^[16]

Career

In 1953, Sharif began his acting career with a role in the Egyptian film, Sira`a Fi al-Wadi, (English, The Blazing Sun or Struggle in the Valley or Fight in the Valley). Numerous Egyptian productions followed. He starred with his wife, Egyptian actress Faten Hamama, in several movies as romantic leads. Others include Ayyamna el helwa (Our Best Days, 1955), La anam (I Don't Sleep, 1958), Sayedat el kasr (Lady of the Castle, 1959) and the Anna Karenina adaptation Nahr el hub (The River of Love, 1961).

Sharif's first English language film was Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, in which he played the role of Sherif Ali. This performance earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, a Most Promising Newcomer award and worldwide fame as the world's leading Arabic actor.^{[citation needed]} Sharif played the title role in the 1965 film Doctor Zhivago by David Lean. His decision to star in William Wyler's Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand reportedly angered Egypt's government due to Streisand's support for the state of Israel.

After a decade with infrequent screen work, in 2003 he received acclaim for his role in the 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.

In November 2005, he was given a 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 handed out very infrequently—is named after Russian director Sergei Eisenstein and can only be given out a total of 25 times by Russia's Mosfilm.

Filmography

References

Bibliography

• The Eternal Male (1977)
• Omar Sharif's Life in Bridge (1983)
• Omar Sharif talks Bridge (2004)
• Bridge Deluxe II play with Omar Sharif (Instruction manual)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Omar Sharif

External links

• Omar Sharif at the Internet Movie Database
• The Making of Lawrence of Arabia, Digitised BAFTA Journal, Winter 1962-3
• Omar Sharif at the CinéArtistes (in French)

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v • d • e César Award for Best Actor 1976 : Philippe Noiret • 1977 : Michel Galabru • 1978 : Jean Rochefort • 1979 : Michel Serrault • 1980 : Claude Brasseur • 1981 : Gérard Depardieu • 1982 : Michel Serrault • 1983 : Philippe Léotard • 1984 : Coluche • 1985 : Alain Delon • 1986 : Christophe Lambert • 1987 : Daniel Auteuil • 1988 : Richard Bohringer • 1989 : Jean-Paul Belmondo • 1990 : Philippe Noiret • 1991 : Gérard Depardieu • 1992 : Jacques Dutronc • 1993 : Claude Rich • 1994 : Pierre Arditi • 1995 : Gérard Lanvin • 1996 : Michel Serrault • 1997 : Philippe Torreton • 1998 : André Dussollier • 1999 : Jacques Villeret • 2000 : Daniel Auteuil • 2001 : Sergi López • 2002 : Michel Bouquet • 2003 : Adrien Brody • 2004 : Omar Sharif • 2005 : Mathieu Amalric • 2006 : Michel Bouquet • 2007 : François Cluzet • 2008 : Mathieu Amalric • 2009 : Vincent Cassel