Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif was an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as his country's greatest male film star. He began his career in Egypt in the early 1950s. He is best known for his appearances in American, British, French, and Italian productions, and has been described as "the first Egyptian and Arab to conquer Hollywood". His career encompassed over 100 films spanning 50 years, and brought him many accolades including three Golden Globe Awards and a César Award for Best Actor.
Sharif played opposite Peter O'Toole as Sherif Ali in the David Lean epic Lawrence of Arabia, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and portrayed the title role in Lean's Doctor Zhivago, earning him the Golden Globe for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. He continued to play romantic leads in films like Funny Girl and The Tamarind Seed and historical figures like the eponymous characters in Genghis Khan, The Mamelukes, and Che!. His acting career continued well into old age, with a well-received turn as a Muslim Turkish immigrant in the French film Monsieur Ibrahim. Sharif made his final film appearance in 2015, the year of his death.
Sharif spoke five languages: Arabic, English, French, Italian and Spanish. He bridled at travel restrictions imposed by the government of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1960s. He was a lifelong horse racing enthusiast, and at one time ranked among the world's top contract bridge players. He was the recipient of high civil honors from multiple countries, including the Egyptian Order of Merit and the French Legion of Honour. He was one of only 25 grantees of UNESCO's Sergei Eisenstein Medal, in recognition of his significant contributions to world film and cultural diversity.
Early life
Sharif was born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub in Alexandria, Kingdom of Egypt, to a Melkite Greek Catholic family. Although most sources claim he was of Syrian and Lebanese descent, Sharif stated in interviews that all of his ancestors were of Syrian descent, making him and his family members of the Antiochian Greek Christian minority. He adopted the surname Sharif, meaning "noble" or "nobleman" in Arabic, after he was picked by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine to star in his film The Blazing Sun. He later converted to Islam and changed his name legally in order to marry Faten Hamama.His father, Yusef Chalhoub, a precious woods merchant, moved to the port city of Alexandria with his mother in the early 20th century from Zahlé. Sharif was later born in Alexandria. His family moved to Cairo when he was four. His mother, Claire Saada, was a noted society hostess, in whose house Egypt's King Farouk was a regular visitor prior to his deposition in 1952.
In his youth, Sharif studied at Victoria College, Alexandria, where he showed a talent for languages, He befriended fellow actor Ahmed Ramzy and Youssef Chahine in school. He later graduated from Cairo University with a degree in mathematics and physics. He worked for a while in his father's precious wood business before beginning his acting career in Egypt. In 1955, he adopted the stage name "Omar Sharif". He married fellow Egyptian actress Faten Hamama.
It has been widely reported that Sharif studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, but the academy told Al Jazeera that this was not true.
Acting career
Egyptian film star
Sharif began his acting career in Egypt with a role in The Blazing Sun. He was also in The Devil of the Desert. Sharif quickly rose to stardom, appearing in Our Beautiful Days, The Lebanese Mission , Struggle in the Pier, Sleepless, Land of Peace, and Goha .He also starred in Sayyidat al-Qasr, A Beginning and an End, A Rumor of Love, and the Anna Karenina adaptation The River of Love by Ezz El-Dine Zulficar. He and his wife, Faten Hamama co-starred in several films as romantic leads. Sharif achieved success through other movies like Struggle on the Nile, A Rumor of Love, and There Is a Man in Our House, which made him a huge competitor to Salah Zulfikar, Shoukry Sarhan and Rushdy Abaza, the Egyptian cinema giants at the time.
''Lawrence of Arabia''
Sharif's first English-language role was that of the fictitious Sherif Ali in David Lean's historical epic Lawrence of Arabia in 1962. Sharif was given the role when Dilip Kumar turned it down, Horst Buchholz proved unavailable and Maurice Ronet could not use the contact lenses necessary to mask his eye colour.Casting Sharif in what is now considered one of the "most demanding supporting roles in Hollywood history" was both complex and risky as he was virtually unknown at the time outside Egypt. However, as historian Steven Charles Caton notes, Lean insisted on using ethnic actors when possible to make the film authentic. Sharif would later use his ambiguous ethnicity in other films: "I spoke French, Greek, Italian, Spanish and even Arabic", he said. As Sharif noted, his accent enabled him to "play the role of a foreigner without anyone knowing exactly where I came from", which he stated proved highly successful throughout his career. To secure the role, Sharif had to sign a seven-film contract with Columbia at $50,000 a film.
File:Lawrence-of-Arabia-3.png|alt=Lawrence-of-Arabia-3|thumb|230px|left|Sharif and Anthony Quinn in Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia was a box office and critical sensation. Sharif's performance earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, as well as a shared Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor.
Sharif went on to star in another Hollywood film, Anthony Mann's The Fall of the Roman Empire where he played the support role of Sohaemus of Armenia. Sharif was third-billed in Columbia's Behold a Pale Horse, playing a priest in the Spanish Civil War alongside Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn. Director Fred Zinnemann said he chose Sharif partly on the suggestion of David Lean. "He said he was an absolutely marvellous actor, 'If you possibly can, take a look at him. Film historian Richard Schickel wrote that Sharif gave a "truly wonderful performance", especially noteworthy because of his totally different role in Lawrence of Arabia: "It is hard to believe that the priest and the sheik are played by the same man". The film, like Fall of the Roman Empire, was a commercial disappointment.
Sharif was one of many stars in MGM's The Yellow Rolls-Royce, playing a Yugoslav wartime patriot; the movie was a hit. He had his first lead role in a Hollywood film when he was cast in the title part of Genghis Khan. Produced by Irving Allen and directed by Henry Levin for Columbia, the $4.5 million epic was a box office disappointment. He had a supporting role in a French Marco Polo biopic, Marco the Magnificent, starring Buchholz and Quinn.
''Doctor Zhivago''
While making Genghis Khan, Sharif heard that Lean was making Doctor Zhivago, an adaptation of Boris Pasternak's 1957 novel. Sharif was a fan of the novel and lobbied for one of the supporting roles, but Lean decided instead to cast him in the lead as Yuri Zhivago, a poet and physician.Film historian Constantine Santas explained that Lean intended the film to be a poetic portrayal of the period, with large vistas of landscapes combined with a powerful score by Maurice Jarre. He noted that Sharif's role is "passive", his eyes reflecting "reality" which then become "the mirror of reality we ourselves see".
File:Geraldine Chaplin - Omar Sharif.jpg|thumb|left|With Geraldine Chaplin in Doctor Zhivago.|160px
While filming the Siberian sections of the film in Joensuu, Finland, Sharif was said to have admired the snowy landscapes and been a guest at a local bridge club, and the locals who liked him nicknamed him "Safiiri". In a commentary on the DVD, Sharif described Lean's style of directing as similar to a general commanding an army. The film was a huge hit. For his performance, Sharif won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Doctor Zhivago remains one of the top ten highest-grossing films of all time after adjusting for inflation.
Sharif followed it with a cameo in The Poppy Is Also a Flower. He was reunited with Lawrence co-star Peter O'Toole and producer Sam Spiegel for The Night of the Generals. His fourth movie for Columbia, Sharif played a German officer in World War II. The film was not a success, nor was the Italian-French fairytale More Than a Miracle, despite featuring Sophia Loren as co-star.
''Funny Girl''
Sharif was also praised for his portrayal of Nicky Arnstein in Funny Girl for Columbia Pictures. He portrayed the husband of Fanny Brice, played by Barbra Streisand in her first film role. His decision to work alongside Streisand angered Egypt's government because she was a vocal supporter of the State of Israel, and the country condemned the film. It was also "immediately banned" in numerous Arab nations. Streisand herself jokingly responded, "You think Cairo was upset? You should've seen the letter I got from my Aunt Rose!" Sharif and Streisand became romantically involved during the filming. He admitted later that he did not find Streisand attractive at first, but her appeal soon overwhelmed him: "About a week from the moment I met her," he recalled, "I was madly in love with her. I thought she was the most gorgeous girl I'd ever seen in my life...I found her physically beautiful, and I started lusting after this woman."Other films
The Mamelukes, an Egyptian epic film with Nabila Ebeid and Emad Hamdy, had a high publicity, was not a hit in Egyptian box office despite being his first in Egyptian cinema since the 1961 film There is a Man in Our House. Sharif co-starred with Catherine Deneuve in Mayerling, and the following year was reunited with Gregory Peck in the western, Mackenna's Gold, an unsuccessful attempt to repeat the success of The Guns of Navarone.File:Omar Sharif-Emad Hamdy.jpg|thumb|235px|left|Sharif and Emad Hamdy in The Mamelukes
At 20th Century Fox he played Che Guevara in Che! which flopped at the box office. The Appointment teamed Sharif with Anouk Aimée and director Sidney Lumet, had strong international success. James Clavell's The Last Valley was a huge flop, despite co-starring Michael Caine. The Horsemen, directed by John Frankenheimer and the last film under his Columbia contract, also performed poorly at the box office. Sharif later said, "What killed my career was appearing in a succession of films you wouldn't turn down. They were by good directors, but they were bad films." He specifically referenced Behold a Pale Horse, The Appointment and The Horsemen.
The Burglars, a French crime film with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Dyan Cannon was a huge hit in France but little seen in the English speaking world. Sharif played Captain Nemo for European TV in an adaptation of Mysterious Island.
He appeared in a romantic thriller alongside Julie Andrews for Blake Edwards, The Tamarind Seed ; it did well at the box office and the critics gave good reviews. He then supported Richard Harris and David Hemmings in a thriller, Juggernaut. Sharif reprised the role of Nick Arnstein in the sequel to Funny Girl, Funny Lady, in 1975. He starred in a West German thriller Crime and Passion and had a cameo in Edwards' The Pink Panther Strikes Again. Sharif had a small role in Ashanti and a bigger one in Bloodline, starring Audrey Hepburn.
"I lost money on gambling, buying horses, things like that", he later said. "So I made those movies which I knew were rubbish... I'd call my agent and tell him to accept any part, just to bail myself out."