Actor Omar Sharif poses for a photo at a dinner party following the movie premiere of “Lawrence of Arabia” in Hollywood, California, December 21, 1962.
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According to a statement from his agent, Sharif suffered a heart attack at his home in Cairo.
Director Jim Sheridan has led the Irish tributes to his great friend Omar Sharif, who he said “may have been one of the greatest actors ever”.
Omar Sharif (L) with Antonio Banderas in a scene of 1999 film “The 13th Warrior“.
Actor Omar Sharif, famous for his roles in the classics “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Dr. Zhivago“, has died.
Born Michel Demitri Shalhoub on April 10, 1932 in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of Alexandria to parents of Syrian and Lebanese extraction, he was raised a Catholic.
More heart-clenching, Tarek added, was the fact that his father sometimes asks how his ex-wife, Faten Hamama, is, despite her passing away in January. They had one son, Tarek, who played Yuri in “Doctor Zhivago” at age 8, but the couple separated in 1966 and divorced in 1974.
I was supposed to interview the late Omar Sharif 31 years ago about his rare comedy role in the spy spoof “Top Secret!“.
Sharif received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.
The role won him the Cesar, the French equivalent of the Oscar, and he followed with “Hidalgo“, a lively western starring Viggo Mortensen.
Despite criticism, the film and Sharif’s portrayal of a physician and poet caught up in the Russian revolution were a hit. He was Jewish gambler Nicky Arnstein opposite Barbra Streisand’s Fanny Brice in amusing Girl. During this period he was featured in more than 100 movies and TV series.
Later in his life, Sharif turned to other interests like playing bridge and attending thoroughbred horse races. Sharif actually played characters of several ethnicities throughout his career, including a German and Spaniard.
“I’d rather be playing bridge than making a bad movie”, he was once quoted as saying. “He was a proud Egyptian”, the American star said in a post on Facebook. Blessed that I was able to work with such a legend.
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But for most of the 1990s and 2000s, he was better known for the lifestyle of an global playboy, living in hotels and gambling prodigiously, reportedly once winning a million dollars at an Italian casino. “I will miss my grandfather dearly”.
