Film legend Omar Sharif passes away

Cairo: Egyptian-born film legend Omar Sharif, who has died aged 83, captivated audiences worldwide for more than half a century, but will forever be remembered as the eponymous “Doctor Zhivago”.

 

Known for his debonair style, raffish good looks and often mischievous joie de vivre, Sharif, who also gained worldwide fame as a bridge player, had Alzheimer's disease. He died of a heart attack, his agent Steve Kenis said in London.

 

Sharif began acting in the 1950s and his most high-profile roles were in the 1960s when he won an Oscar nomination for Lawrence of Arabia and Golden Globes for the same film and for Doctor Zhivago.

 

His role in Lawrence of Arabia as Sharif Ali, an Arab chief enlisted by Peter O’Toole’s T.E. Lawrence in Britain’s fight against the Turks in World War I, propelled him to stardom, setting the stage for an even higher profile role in David Lean’s subsequent release, “Doctor Zhivago”.

 

Sharif played the hero in the epic adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s novel of tortured passions during the Russian Revolution, with his real-life son Tarek playing his younger self.