Omar Sharif

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Omar Sharif (born Michael Demitri Shalhoub; April 10, 1932) is an Arab Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films, most famously in Doctor Zhivago, Funny Girl and Lawrence of Arabia. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won three Golden Globe Awards.

Personal life

Omar Sharif was born Michael Shalhoub in Alexandria, into a wealthy Egyptian Catholic family. Sharif's family has widely been reported to be Egyptian-Lebanese, though Sharif has said that he is Egyptian and the reports to the contrary are incorrect. Sharif graduated from Alexandria’s Victoria College, then from Cairo University with degrees in both mathematics and physics. In 1955, Omar El-Sharif converted to Islam and then married Egyptian actress Faten Hamama. The couple had one son, Tarek El-Sharif, who appeared in Doctor Zhivago as Yuri at the age of eight. They separated in 1966 and the marriage ended in 1974. Sharif never remarried; he stated that since his divorce, he never fell in love with another woman, and that, although he lived abroad for years, it was not possible for him to fall in love with a woman who was not Egyptian. In a 2007 interview, Sharif denied rumors that he had become atheist. He’s remained a firm believer in God and Islam, and had performed a Umrah (pilgrimage to Mecca) three or four years earlier.

Sharif lived in his native Egypt from birth in 1932 until he moved to Europe in 1965. Omar recounts that, in 1932, his father "wasn't a wealthy man", but "earned quite a bit of money". 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 was very successful during that time, in ways that Omar himself describes as dishonest or immoral.

By contrast, after 1952, Omar states 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. When commenting about his fame and life in Hollywood, Sharif said, "It gave me glory, but it gave me loneliness also. And a lot of missing my own land, my own people and my own country." Due to the state of war between Egypt and Israel, Sharif's Egyptian citizenship was almost withdrawn by the Egyptian Government when his affair with Barbra Streisand was made public in the Egyptian press due to Streisand's vocal support of Israel.

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.

Sharif then met his now close friend and lawyer Nabil Mounier Habib. When Sharif visits Egypt he stays in Habib's residence in Cairo, Egypt. Sharif met Habib at the same hospital where he had his surgery; Habib was there because his wife was in labor. They met through a mutual friend, Naguib Mahfouz, who would divide his time between both men's hospital rooms. From that day on, Sharif and Habib became very close friends. They both attended their mutual friend's funeral in 2006 at the El-Rashdan Mosque in Nasr City.

Sharif is fluent in Arabic, English, Greek, and French. He also speaks some Italian, Spanish and Turkish.

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 the equivalent of $US1700 and ordered to pay the officer the equivalent of $US340 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.) On February 13, 2007 Sharif was "found guilty of assaulting a Beverly Hills parking lot attendant and breaking his nose".

Omar Sharif said the “East” will never have a democracy because people like him “prefer to go to the neighborhood chief”. 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 westerners and that Arab states were made up of sects resistant to becoming democratized.

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 Association Football Club and in the 1970s would telephone their automated scoreline from his home in Paris for score updates. Sharif was given an honorary degree by the University Of Hull in 2010 and used the occasion to meet up with Hull City football legend Ken Wagstaff

At present, Sharif resides mostly in Cairo with his family. In addition to his son, he has two grandsons, Omar and Karim.

Pastimes

Sharif, once among the world's best known contract bridge players, co-wrote a syndicated newspaper bridge column for the Chicago Tribune 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 and Amiga version in 1992, Omar Sharif Bridge is still sold in Windows and "mobile platform" versions. 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.

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."

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. 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.

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