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Omar Sharif Passed Away
allen griggs
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Omar Sharif, Suave Star of 'Doctor Zhivago,' Dies at 83
The Hollywood Reporter
20 hours ago
#57457;#57344;#57345;#57469;
Omar Sharif, the Egyptian matinee idol who enthralled audiences around the world with his performances in the sweeping David Lean epics Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, has died. He was 83.
Sharif, who also was known for playing the smooth gambler/con man Nicky Arnstein opposite Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968) and its 1975 sequel, died of a heart attack this afternoon in a hospital in Cairo, his longtime agent Steve Kenis confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
It was reported in May that Sharif had been battling Alzheimer's.
With his deep brown eyes, thick mustache and silken black hair, Sharif became an international sex symbol after he portrayed the Russian poet-doctor Yuri Zhivago in love with Julie Christie's Lara in Doctor Zhivago (1965), recipient of five Academy Awards.
Sharif had won widespread attention three years earlier when he received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor, as well as a Golden Globe, for his performance as T.E. Lawrence's right-hand man Sherif Ali in the spectacular Peter O'Toole Lawrence of Arabia (1962), winner of seven Oscars, including best picture.
Sharif, who spoke five languages, limned an array of nationalities in dozens of motion pictures in a career that spanned more than six decades.
He also had a long obsession with the "mind sport" of bridge. A onetime grandmaster and top 50 player in the world, he was said to be the captain of the Egyptian team in the Bridge Olympiads of the 1960s and was never far from a bridge table, spending vast amounts of time in the game's meccas of London, Juan-les-Pins and Trouville in France.
"Acting is my profession; bridge is my passion," he once said.
He told The Guardian in an April interview that he stopped playing about six years ago "when I stopped being good enough." However, he still indulged his passion for race horses.
Of Lebanese and Syrian lineage, he was born Michel Shalhoub on April 10, 1932, in Alexandria, the son of a prominent timber merchant. The family moved to Cairo when he was young, and his mother played cards with King Farouk.
Read More: 'Lawrence of Arabia' Actor Omar Sharif Battling Alzheimer's
Sharif scored the lead in a 1954 Egyptian film, Siraa Fil-Wadi (also known as The Blazing Sun or Struggle in the Valley), starring opposite Faten Hamama, a leading lady in the region. The two married in 1955, a union that ended during the filming of Doctor Zhivago. (Sharif never married again.)
Flashing his famous gap-toothed smile and Old World charm, he soon became Egypt's most popular male star and went on to topline 26 Egyptian and two French films during the next several years. Lean's selection of him to play Ali in Lawrence of Arabia - about the life of dashing English adventurer and army officer Lawrence, played by O'Toole - changed his life.
"I was taken in a plane to the desert to meet David," he told The Guardian, "and as we came in to land we could see him sitting all by himself. We landed right next to him, but he didn't move one step. When I got off the plane, he didn't say hello. He simply walked round me to see my profile.
"Finally, he said, very good, Omar. Let's go to the makeup tent.' I tried on a mustache, and it was decided I would grow one. I've shaved it off for a couple of films, but otherwise I've had it ever since."
O'Toole was said to be Lean's original choice to play Yuri in Doctor Zhivago, which was based on the Boris Pasternak novel that is set around the Russian Civil War of 1918-21. Michael Caine says that he suggested to Lean that Sharif be given the role of the title character.
For the film, he recalled that Lean asked him to "do something extremely difficult for an actor. I want you to do nothing. Not to emote, not to have a reaction,'" the director said.
Lean realized that it would be difficult to show onscreen that a man is a poet. "We can't have him reciting poetry," Sharif said. "So we decided the whole film would be seen through [Zhivago's] eyes. We can show beauty, the leaves on a tree in autumn, flowers in the wind . "
The 3-hour, 17-minute film, which was shot mostly in Spain over 13 months, was a huge box-office hit. Adjusted for inflation, it is the eighth-highest-grossing movie in domestic history (it raked in $111.7 million originally, $1.03 billion in today's dollars, according to Box Office Mojo).
The Hollywood Reporter
20 hours ago
#57457;#57344;#57345;#57469;
Omar Sharif, the Egyptian matinee idol who enthralled audiences around the world with his performances in the sweeping David Lean epics Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, has died. He was 83.
Sharif, who also was known for playing the smooth gambler/con man Nicky Arnstein opposite Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968) and its 1975 sequel, died of a heart attack this afternoon in a hospital in Cairo, his longtime agent Steve Kenis confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
It was reported in May that Sharif had been battling Alzheimer's.
With his deep brown eyes, thick mustache and silken black hair, Sharif became an international sex symbol after he portrayed the Russian poet-doctor Yuri Zhivago in love with Julie Christie's Lara in Doctor Zhivago (1965), recipient of five Academy Awards.
Sharif had won widespread attention three years earlier when he received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor, as well as a Golden Globe, for his performance as T.E. Lawrence's right-hand man Sherif Ali in the spectacular Peter O'Toole Lawrence of Arabia (1962), winner of seven Oscars, including best picture.
Sharif, who spoke five languages, limned an array of nationalities in dozens of motion pictures in a career that spanned more than six decades.
He also had a long obsession with the "mind sport" of bridge. A onetime grandmaster and top 50 player in the world, he was said to be the captain of the Egyptian team in the Bridge Olympiads of the 1960s and was never far from a bridge table, spending vast amounts of time in the game's meccas of London, Juan-les-Pins and Trouville in France.
"Acting is my profession; bridge is my passion," he once said.
He told The Guardian in an April interview that he stopped playing about six years ago "when I stopped being good enough." However, he still indulged his passion for race horses.
Of Lebanese and Syrian lineage, he was born Michel Shalhoub on April 10, 1932, in Alexandria, the son of a prominent timber merchant. The family moved to Cairo when he was young, and his mother played cards with King Farouk.
Read More: 'Lawrence of Arabia' Actor Omar Sharif Battling Alzheimer's
Sharif scored the lead in a 1954 Egyptian film, Siraa Fil-Wadi (also known as The Blazing Sun or Struggle in the Valley), starring opposite Faten Hamama, a leading lady in the region. The two married in 1955, a union that ended during the filming of Doctor Zhivago. (Sharif never married again.)
Flashing his famous gap-toothed smile and Old World charm, he soon became Egypt's most popular male star and went on to topline 26 Egyptian and two French films during the next several years. Lean's selection of him to play Ali in Lawrence of Arabia - about the life of dashing English adventurer and army officer Lawrence, played by O'Toole - changed his life.
"I was taken in a plane to the desert to meet David," he told The Guardian, "and as we came in to land we could see him sitting all by himself. We landed right next to him, but he didn't move one step. When I got off the plane, he didn't say hello. He simply walked round me to see my profile.
"Finally, he said, very good, Omar. Let's go to the makeup tent.' I tried on a mustache, and it was decided I would grow one. I've shaved it off for a couple of films, but otherwise I've had it ever since."
O'Toole was said to be Lean's original choice to play Yuri in Doctor Zhivago, which was based on the Boris Pasternak novel that is set around the Russian Civil War of 1918-21. Michael Caine says that he suggested to Lean that Sharif be given the role of the title character.
For the film, he recalled that Lean asked him to "do something extremely difficult for an actor. I want you to do nothing. Not to emote, not to have a reaction,'" the director said.
Lean realized that it would be difficult to show onscreen that a man is a poet. "We can't have him reciting poetry," Sharif said. "So we decided the whole film would be seen through [Zhivago's] eyes. We can show beauty, the leaves on a tree in autumn, flowers in the wind . "
The 3-hour, 17-minute film, which was shot mostly in Spain over 13 months, was a huge box-office hit. Adjusted for inflation, it is the eighth-highest-grossing movie in domestic history (it raked in $111.7 million originally, $1.03 billion in today's dollars, according to Box Office Mojo).