Last month we learnt about the demise of Omar
Sharif, an actor whose name and work may be unknown to the youngest viewers.
Omar Sharif, whose real name was Michel Demitri Shalhoub, died of a heart
attack at the age of 83. He was born in Alexandria – Egypt – and he belonged to
a well-off family; he had had an essentially European education which enabled
him to get the role of Sherif Ali as the director of Lawrence of Arabia – David Lean – needed Arab actors who could
speak English. Apparently Lean came across a photo of the actor and he was so
impressed by the stunning appearance of Sharif that he called him immediately.
Sharif had already made quite a lot of films in his own country and was already
a star in Egypt but thanks to the role of Sherif Ali, he received an Oscar
nomination and two Golden Globe Awards. Lawrence
of Arabia (1962) became a worldwide success and David Lean offered him the
leading role of his next film: Doctor Zhivago
(1965). Omar Sharif, who was reluctant to play the role of an Arab in all
his films, played the part of a Russian physician caught up in the Russian
Revolution, a character portrayed by Boris Pasternak in his 1957 novel. Julie Christie played opposite Sharif in this
film and both made one of the most attractive couples on the screen. (By the
way, the story is set in Russia but the film was actually shot in Spain, in
fact, Lawrence of Arabia was also
mainly shot in Spain.) Omar Sharif won his third Golden Globe award for his
role of Doctor Zhivago in 1966 and he managed to play roles that were not only
related to his Arab background but he somehow specialised in playing real-life
figures such as Genghis Khan or Che Guevara. He worked with some of the most
important film-makers during his lifetime and he took part in numerous films
until his roles became increasingly sporadic. In 2003 he won the Cesar – the
French equivalent of the Oscar – for his role of a Muslim shopkeeper who adopts
a Jewish boy in Monsieur Ibrahim
(2003). Paying
tribute to Omar Sharif means recalling the epic stories of the golden age of
Hollywood and realising how few actors are still witnesses of that amazing
period. If you are not acquainted with Omar Sharif´s roles, I encourage you to
watch Doctor Zhivago, or at least, to
listen to its soundtrack, one of the most beautiful soundtracks in the history
of cinema.
