The tragic demise of legendary actor Omar Sharif has left many in grief including Hollywood stars.
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Sharif, 83, died on Friday of a heart attack in an upmarket Cairo clinic after a struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Sharif, who was also an expert bridge player, was one of the few Arab actors to break into Hollywood.
Celebrities like Anupam Kher, Madhur Bhandarkar and Randeep Hooda took to Twitter to mourn the death of Egyptian-born actor Omar Sharif.
Kabir Bedi: In all my films with OMAR SHARIF – “Ashanti”, “Beyond Justice” and “Lie Down with Lions”- he LOVED planning food for his dinner guests. RIP.
His most high-profile roles were in the 1960s when he won an Oscar nomination for “Lawrence of Arabia” and Golden Globes for the same film and for “Doctor Zhivago”.
Born Michel Shalhoub in Alexandria on April 10, 1932, to a wealthy family in Alexandria, Sharif studied mathematics and physics at a university in Cairo – the period when he is supposed to have become interested in acting.
He worked in his father’s timber business for several years before realizing his dream with a role in an Egyptian movie, “The Blazing Sun“, in 1954 opposite the Middle East’s biggest female star, Faten Hamama.
Despite his famous reputation for being with a lot of women – a long-romantic list that included renowned actresses Catherine Deneuve, Barbara Streisand and Ingrid Bergman – Sharif was only married once, to Hamama.
They divorced in 1974 when Sharif, already famous in his homeland, launched a career in Hollywood. I bow down & salute him for being one of the finest actors in the world. RIP.
Sharif was nominated for the Oscars for his role as Sharif Ali in Peter O’Toole-starrer “Lawrence of Arabia“.
Sharif’s work in “Lawrence of Arabia” earned him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. It won him renewed admiration when the film was restored and re-released in 1989.
He then played the title role in “Doctor Zhivago“, the story of a physician and poet caught up in the Russian revolution. Superstar, Gentleman, Icon.An ” Arab ” who never let his voice or image be misused by idiots.
In later years, he appeared in TV mini-series and a steady string of films.
In 2003 he accepted a role in the French film “Monsieur Ibrahim“, portraying a Muslim shopkeeper in Paris who adopts a Jewish boy.
Reportedly fluent in English, French and Greek, Sharif became known for his passion for bridge and thoroughbred race horses.
Omar Sharif has died aged 83.
“I decided I didn’t want to be a slave to any passion any more except for my work”, he said.
He was a lover of the good life who was prone to overindulgence, especially when it came to his many affairs and to gambling.
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“My philosophy of life is that I’m living every moment intensely, as if it were the last moment”, he said in an interview with The New York Times in 2003.
