Born Michel Demitri Shahoubon, April 10, 1032, in Alexandria, Egypt, Omar Sharif was the son of Lebanese imigrant Joseph, who ran a successful timber business. He received a good education, attending Victoria College and Cairo University, where he majored in math and physics. He was working in the family business when he was offered a role in the Egyptian film Sirà Fil-Wadi (The Blazing Sun), and overnight he became a massive star in his home country. This led to him making a further twenty-two films in Egypt and marrying his co-star, Faten Hamama. Originally Catholic, he converted to Islam when he married, consequently changing his name.
Although his earlier films were hardly seen outside the Middle East, they did catch the attention of David Lean when he was looking for somebody to play an Arab chieftan opposite Peter OToole in Lawrence of Arabia. Sharif's charismatic performance earned him an Oscar nomination and brought international stardom. At first he was cast principally for his ethnic appearance, playing a Spaniard in Behold a Pale Horse, with Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn, and an Armenian in The Fall of the Roman Empire, with Sophia Loren and Alec Guinness; and thrilling audiences as the lead in the biopic Genghis Khan, with Stephen Boyd, James Mason, and Eli Wallach. But in 1965 he played the title role opposite Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago, enjoying massive success. In total, he has made 110 films during the course of his career, and he is still working. He has also worked as a producer and as a writer, contributing several episodes to the French series Petits Mythes Urbains (Urban Legends).
During the 1970s, Sharif took a break from Hollywood to star in several smaller-scale French films and to concentrate on his contract bridge. Considered one of the best bridge players in the world, he has published several books on the subject, authored a long-running column in the Chicago Tribune, and helped to design a computer game, Omar Sharif Bridge. A keen gambler and fan of horse racing for most of his life, he has now given up to concentrate on his acting work. He smoked fifty cigarettes a day until 1992, when heart trouble necessitated a triple bypass operation, but afterwards he determined to get himself fit and return to feature films, starting with a supporting role alongside Antonio Banderas and Vladimir Kulich in The 13th Warrior. In François Dupeyron's Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran he returned to playing the lead, as an elderly Muslim shopkeeper who befriends a Jewish boy, and received major critical acclaim. He has since enjoyed roles in Hidalgo, with Viggo Mortensen and Zuleikha Robinson, and One Night with the King, with Tiffany Dupont and former Bros star Luke Goss.
Sharif and Hamama divorced in 1974, and later efforts at reconciliation were unsuccessful. They had one child, Tarek Sharif, who enjoyed a brief acting career. Sharif was later romantically linked with his Funny Girl co-star Barbra Streisand. He never remarried but remained devoted to his family.
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