Biography for
Omar Sharif

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Omar Sharif, the Franco-Arabic actor best known for playing Sharif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and the title role in Doctor Zhivago (1965), was born Michel Demitri Shalhoub on April 10, 1932 in Alexandria, Egypt to Joseph Shalhoub, a lumber merchant, and his wife, Claire. Of Lebanese and Syrian extraction, the young Michel was raised a Roman Catholic. He was educated at Victoria College in Alexandria and too a degree in mathematics and physics from Cairo University with a major. Afterward graduating from university, he entered the family lumber business.

Before making his English-language film debut with "Lawrence of Arabia", for which he earned him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination and international fame, Sharif became a star in Egyptian cinema. His first movie was the Egyptian film Siraa Fil-Wadi (1954) ("The Blazing Sun") in 1953, opposite the renowned Egyptian actress 'Faten Hamamain'whom he married in 1955. He converted to Islam to marry Hamamain and took the name Omar al-Sharif. The couple had one child (Tarek Sharif, who was born in 1957 and portrayed the young Zhivago in the eponymous picture) and divorced in 1974. Sharif never remarried.

Beginning in the 1960s, Sharif earned a reputation as one of the world's best known contract bridge players. In the 1970s and '80s, he co-wrote a syndicated newspaper bridge column for the Chicago Tribune. Sharif also wrote several books on bridge and has licensed his name to a bridge computer game, "Omar Sharif Bridge", which has been marketed since 1992.

Sharif told the press in 2006 that he no longer played bridge, explaining, "I decided I didn't want to be a slave to any passion any more except for my work. I had too many passions, bridge, horses, gambling. I want to live a different kind of life, be with my family more because I didn't give them enough time."

As an actor, Sharif had made a comeback in 2003 playing the title role of an elderly Muslim shopkeeper in the French film Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran (2003). For his performance, he won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Actor César, France's equivalent of the Oscar, from the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma.

Spouse

Trivia

World-class Bridge player, he has been known to anticipate or postpone shootings in order to be able to attend major bridge events.

Father of Tarek Sharif.

Fluent in English, Arabic, Greek and French

Of Lebanese/Syrian descent, but lived in Egypt all his life

5 August 2003 - Received a one-month suspended sentence and a $1700 fine for head-butting a police officer in a French casino in July.

He is both author and co-author of several books on Bridge and has licensed his name to a Bridge computer game.

Also fluent in Italian (ex. appearance in main RAI show ''Domenica In'' 10/23/2005)

Underwent triple bypass surgery in 1992, and suffered a mild heart attack in 1994. Until his bypass, Sharif smoked 100 cigarettes a day; after the operation he quit easily.

Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1990.

Ordered by a US court in Beverly Hills, California to take an anger management course for punching a parking attendant who refused to accept his European currency on 11 June 2005. Sharif was not present for the hearing. (13 February 2007).

Writes a weekly syndicated column on Bridge.

Personal Quotes

I definitely want to do more theatre now. Or, two weeks in a film for a remarkable amount of money.

I'd rather be playing bridge than making a bad movie.

It made me the hero of the whole of France. To head-butt a cop is the dream of every Frenchman.

Aggressive feminists scare me.

[On Peter O'Toole] The very prototype of the ham.

I've stopped (playing bridge) all together. I decided I didn't want to be a slave to any passion any more except for my work. I had too many passions, bridge, horses, gambling. I want to live a different kind of life, be with my family more because I didn't give them enough time. - Interview with Diana Saenger, 2006.

I lived in America for a long time. Only ten per cent of all Americans have a passport. In other words, ninety per cent never left America. They don't know anything. The typical Middle Eastern man is far more intelligent.

Salary

Where Are They Now

(August 2003) Receives one-month suspended prison sentence for striking a police officer in a suburban-Paris casino in July 2003. Is also fined $1,700 and ordered to pay the officer $340 in damages. (He had insulted and then head-butted the Pontoise policeman, who tried to intervene in an argument between the actor and a roulette croupier.)

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