A knight to remember

Life & times

When Omar Sharif first appeared as a virtual mirage in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962), shimmering distantly in the desert heat before revealing himself, in the same single shot, to be a lethal musketeer, it would have been easy to mistake this as one of the great “and-introducing” moments in cinema. In fact, Sharif had been a star in Egypt since the mid-Fifties, with more than 20 film credits to his name.

Still, this was a de facto debut as far as the English-speaking world was concerned — and his role as Sherif Ali, the warrior sheikh who becomes Lawrence’s wariest but also most loyal helpmeet, was landmark casting and an ideal, perhaps even unimprovable use of his exotic charm. He won the Supporting Actor Golden Globe and was nominated for the Oscar.

Status as a global matinee idol came instantly, secured him a handful of highly sought-after parts, and slipped with curious rapidity through his fingers. He was cast as conquerors, revolutionaries, and despots: in the same decade, he played Genghis Khan and Che Guevara. He was a romantic lead of dashing poise and glamour, even if the tragic scope of the lead role in Lean’s follow-up, Dr Zhivago (1965), made him seem, in showbiz parlance, “overparted”: stretched debatably too far to emote, carry the film and convey an exhausted dignity at the same time.

In William Wyler’s Funny Girl (1968), he was cast, less demandingly, as Fanny Brice’s husband, opposite debuting sensation Barbra Streisand. There are question marks against that performance, too: asking the clearly Arabic Sharif to portray a Jew was controversial at the time, and their romantic subplot keeps obstructing Fanny’s rise to fame, slowing the picture down.

But they actually share an unmistakeable and glowing chemistry together, which can’t be said for all Streisand’s screen romances. Off-set, they started an affair, which didn’t last long, but is thought to have contributed to Streisand’s break-up with Elliott Gould: and things remained friendly enough that Sharif returned for a brief cameo in the sequel, Funny Lady (1975).

By then, he was already stepping back from the limelight, concentrating his efforts instead on the world of professional bridge.

He would spoof his mysterious image amusingly as assassins and agents in the likes of The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) and Top Secret! (1984). And substantial roles didn’t vanish altogether — he actually won the Best Actor César in France for playing a kindly Turkish immigrant who adopts a Jewish boy in Monsieur Ibrahim (2003).

But the truth — the secret Sherif Ali might have whispered to the world in the first place — is that Sharif was really a fine supporting actor, pushed uncomfortably into a position of stardom. One of his last appearances of note, after a similar role bored him to tears in The Thirteenth Warrior (1999) was as a wise desert sheikh in the Viggo Mortensen mustang-racing adventure Hidalgo (2004). In that throwback context, it was touching to see him cast an unironic glance all the way back to that grand Arabian entrance, drawing a wide and perfect circle in the sand.

The many milestones


 1932: Born Michael Chaloub in Alexandria on April 10
 1954: Leading role in Egyptian film ‘The Blazing Sun’
 1955: Marries Faten Hamama, one of Arabic cinema’s favourite actresses
 Late 1950s: Converts to Islam and changes his name to Omar El-Sharif and appears in 23 Arabic films
 1958: Appears in ‘Goha’, French film directed by Jacques Baratier
 1960: Plays a sheikh in ‘The Fabulous Adventures of Marco Polo’
 Early 1960s: Drops the “El” from his name
 1962: Stars opposite Peter O’Toole in ‘Lawrence of Arabia’
 1964: ‘The Fall of the Roman Empire’, Behold a Pale Horse’, ‘The Yellow Rolls-Royce’
 1965: Stars with Julie Christie in ‘Doctor Zhivago’
 1967: ‘Cinderella’, ‘Italian Style’ with Sophia Loren
 1968: Stars in ‘Funny Girl’ with Barbra Streisand
 1969: ‘Mayerling’, ‘Mackenna’s Gold’
 1970: ‘The Last Valley’, with Michael Caine
 1971: ‘The Horsemen’
 1974: ‘Juggernaut’, ‘The Tamarind Seed’, with Julie Andrews
 1975: ‘Funny Lady’ with Barbra Streisand
 1979: ‘Ashanti’
 1984: ‘Top Secret’, (for television) ‘The Far Pavilions’
 1986: (for television) ‘Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna and Harem’
 1995: (for television) ‘Catherine the Great’
 2003: ‘Monsieur Ibrahim’ (awarded a César for his role as an elderly Turkishshopkeeper)
 2004: (for television) ‘The Ten Commandments’