He died Omar Sharif, the Egyptian international – publico

                 

                         
                     

                         
                     

                 

 
                         

Many people, if not most, of the spectators of Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962), must have thought that actor who appeared on a camel after a very long journey towards the chamber was a rookie.

                     

                         It was Omar Sharif, who was then 29, was one of the biggest stars in Egypt, which then had an industrial and popular film of considerable strength but it was not exported, at least to Western markets. With their participation in this very famous Lean film, Sharif became the first Egyptian actor to win a global fame.

Sharif died Friday at age 83 following a heart attack in a hospital in Cairo .

Lean called him immediately for his next film, Doctor Zhivago (1965), which was so famous as Lawrence or more, and definitely established Sharif as an international superstar, of Allure romantic and seductive. But, as often happens in American cinema, intended primarily to interpret “foreigners”: was Russian (in Zhivago ), was Spanish, was Mexican, was Yugoslav – and was even Che Guevara, the bizarríssimo biopic held by Richard Fleischer in 1969 ( Che! ). To scandal of some compatriots, was even Jewish, the Funny Girl William Wyler (and its sequel, Funny Lady ), next to the Jewish Barbra Streisand, to whom – Double scandal – maintained a affair

Funny Girl. and Funny Lady show Sharif facet that may not have been much explored but where he proved expert, the comedy actor, able to elegantly turn a little to the nail of her picture charm. Blake Edwards, who put him to star opposite Julie Andrews in a melodrama 1974 ( The Tamarind Seed , another Russian role), saw it well when, in one of several sequels of Pantera Pink , she gave him a small role, one very special cameo , in the shoes of a professional killer who jumps to the path of Inspector Clouseau – “ honni soit qui y mal think , “Sharif could finally make Egyptian in an American movie …

Six decades of” classic “and” bad “

The actor, whose son had revealed in May this year that suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, once was nominated for an Oscar (for Supporting Actor) for Lawrence of Arabia . The film still would come a close friendship with Peter O’Toole, who classified the name chosen in 1954 by Demetri Friend Born Michel Chalhoub, when rolled his first film in Egypt, as “ridiculous.” Therefore, treated him by “Fred”.

Catholic Born in Alexandria in 1932 in a wealthy family, he studied mathematics and physics at Victoria College of your city and then would train for an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Spoke five languages ​​and convert to Islam would

Since 1954, then made more than 20 films in his country. – Some of which opposite his future wife, the Egyptian star Faten Hamama (divorciaram- Sharif in 1974 and did not return to marry).

Sharif, whose journey of more than 60 year career has not been touched by the lack of work but would never have very intense pace of the 1960s, did not escape criticism about their choices of roles or qualities in screen. “I just want to know get to the studio on time and remind me of my lines,” he simplified in Shooting Mayerling (1968) with Deneuve and Ava Gardner. But reflected and weighed the positive and the negative of his career regularly in conversations with the press – “I made three films that are classic, which itself is already very rare,” perspectivou in 1995 in an interview with New York Times; a decade later admit to the British daily Guardian that “since 1972.73″ just made “bad movies”.

He also said live divided between work abroad and Egypt and the life he could have had without having been chosen by David Lean epic that launched him. “Even with Lawrence of Arabia did not ask to be an international player. By going to America and become famous, it gave me glory but gave me loneliness”, “nostalgia” of their land and people and family, say in 2007.

Among his recent roles include a cameo in the movie A Castle in Italy (2013) Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, several television films and series, the French drama Rock the Casbah (2013) or the American film Hidalgo (2004). Other public traces of Sharif were his passion and talent for the bridge and the fact that it was one of the few receivers Sergei Eisenstein Medal of UNESCO for his contribution to cinema and diversity. Let debut for the short 1001 Inventions and the World of Ibn Al-Haytham , Ahmed Salim, even in post-production stage.