Home >

Omar Sharif

Omar Sharif

Birthday: 1932-04-10 | Place of Birth: Alexandria, Egypt

Omar Sharif, the Franco-Arabic actor best known for playing Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and the title role in Doctor Zhivago (1965), was born Michel Demitri Shalhoub on April 10, 1932 in Alexandria, Egypt to Joseph Shalhoub, a lumber merchant, and his wife, Claire. Of Lebanese and Syrian extraction, the young Michel was raised a Roman Catholic. He was educated at Victoria College in Alexandria and took a degree in mathematics and physics from Cairo University with a major. Afterward graduating from university, he entered the family lumber business. Before making his English-language film debut with "Lawrence of Arabia", for which he earned him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination and international fame, Sharif became a star in Egyptian cinema. His first movie was the Egyptian film Siraa Fil-Wadi (1954) ("The Blazing Sun") in 1953, opposite the renowned Egyptian actress Faten Hamama whom he married in 1955. He converted to Islam to marry Hamama and took the name Omar al-Sharif. The couple had one child (Tarek Sharif, who was born in 1957 and portrayed the young Zhivago in the eponymous picture) and divorced in 1974. Sharif never remarried. Beginning in the 1960s, Sharif earned a reputation as one of the world's best known contract bridge players. In the 1970s and '80s, he co-wrote a syndicated newspaper bridge column for the Chicago Tribune. Sharif also wrote several books on bridge and has licensed his name to a bridge computer game, "Omar Sharif Bridge", which has been marketed since 1992. Sharif told the press in 2006 that he no longer played bridge, explaining, "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." As an actor, Sharif had made a comeback in 2003 playing the title role of an elderly Muslim shopkeeper in the French film Monsieur Ibrahim (2003). For his performance, he won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Actor César, France's equivalent of the Oscar, from the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma.

...

Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2021
Indiana Jones: The Search for the Lost Golden Age

as    Self - Actor (archive footage)

2013
Rock the Casbah

as    Moulay Hassan

2009
The Last Templar

as    Konstantine

2009
The Last Templar

as    Konstantine

2007
2006
The Ten Commandments

as    Jethro

2006
The Ten Commandments

as    Jethro

2006
One Night with the King

as    Prince Memucan

2005
St. Peter

as    San Pietro

2004
Hidalgo

as    Sheikh Riyadh

2003
Monsieur Ibrahim

as    Monsieur Ibrahim

2002
Pyramid

as    Nakht (voice)

2001
The Parole Officer

as    Victor

1999
The 13th Warrior

as    Melchisidek

1998
Mysteries of Egypt

as    Grandfather

1996
Gulliver's Travels

as    Sorcerer

1996
Gulliver's Travels

as    Sorcerer

1994
The Rainbow Thief

as    Dima

1992
Beyond Justice

as    Emir Beni-Zair

1991
Memories of Midnight

as    Constantin Demiris

1986
Anastasia - The Mystery of Anna

as    Czar Nicholas II

1986
Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna

as    Czar Nicholas II

1986
Peter the Great

as    Prince Feodor Romodanovsky

1986
Harem

as    Sultan Hassan

1984
Top Secret!

as    Agent Cedric

1984
The Far Pavilions

as    Koda Dad

1982
Green Ice

as    Meno Argenti