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Omar Sharif
Born	Michel Demitri Chalhoub
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1954 – present
Spouse	Faten Hamama (1954-1974)

Omar Sharif (born Michel Demitri Chalhoub; Arabic: عمر الشريف; April 10, 1932) is an Egyptian actor who has starred in many Hollywood films. He is most famous for his roles in Doctor Zhivago, Funny Girl and Lawrence of Arabia. Sharif has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won a Golden Globe.

Personal life

Omar Sharif was born Michel Demitri Shalhoub in Alexandria, Egypt. Contrary to many websites that declare Omar Sharif of Greek, Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, or British birth or origin, Sharif was born in Egypt to Catholic Egyptian citizens. In his autobiography, The Eternal Male., Sharif affirms his Egyptian identity and his life-story intertwines with the history of Egypt especially during the eras of King Farouk and President Nasser. He makes no reference to any lineage or association with other countries.

Omar Sharif graduated from Alexandria’s Victoria College, then from Cairo University with a mathematics and physics major.

In 1955, Omar El -Sharif converted to Islam and 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. The marriage ended in 1974.

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.

In a 2002 interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Omar Sharif stated that he and his son Tarek were atheists. 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 $1700 and ordered to pay the officer $340 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".

According to The Middle East Media Research Institute, Omar Sharif said the "East" will never have a democracy because people like him "prefer to go to the neighborhood chief (شيخ الحارة), instead of Democracy." MEMRI posted an interview of Sharif that aired on the Al-Hayat TV network on June 8, 2008. 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 regular people and that Arab nations 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 and in the 1970s would telephone their automated scoreline from his home in Paris for score updates.

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 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, where he once assaulted a casino employee after losing thousands of dollars on a single roulette bet.

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.

Filmography

Awards and honors

References

1. Egyptian Government State Information Service.
2. The Eternal Male
3. The Eternal Male.
4. Interview: Omar Sharif (English translation) - El Mundo on 2002.
5. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,,00.html "Q&A With Omar Sharif" (December 8 2003). Rebecca Winters, ].
6. Omar Sharif guilty of punch attack
7. Actor Omar Sharif Says Arab Nations Will Never Be Democratized
8. Change of Subject - Observations, reports, tips, referrals and tirades | Chicago Tribune | Blog
9. http://www.thetradingcentre.co.uk/products.asp?category=Omar+Sharif+Bridge
10. "Omar Sharif sued for assault". (November 6 2005). New Sunday Times, p. 29.
11. ReelTalk Movie Reviews

Bibliography

• The Eternal Male (1977)
• Omar Sharif's Life in Bridge (1983)
• Omar Sharif talks Bridge (2004)
• Bridge Deluxe II play with Omar Sharif (Instruction manual)

External links

• The Making of Lawrence of Arabia, Digitised BAFTA Journal, Winter 1962-3
• Omar Sharif at the CinéArtistes (in french)

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Category

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• Living people
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