Doctor Zhivago star Omar Sharif dies, aged 83

The Egyptian-born actor was propelled to stardom by his role in the World War 1 drama Lawrence of Arabia.

Egyptian-born actor Omar Sharif died on Friday, aged 83. Pawan Singh/The National

LONDON // Egyptian-born actor Omar Sharif, who starred in Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, died on Friday, aged 83.

“He died this afternoon of a heart attack in Cairo,” said Sharif’s London-based agent, Steve Kenis, adding that the actor had been in a hospital for patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Former antiquities minister and renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, who was one of Sharif’s close friends, said the legendary actor had died in an upscale clinic in Cairo, where he had been for a month.

“His psychological condition had deteriorated – he had stopped eating and was not drinking,” Mr Hawass said.

He said Sharif’s funeral could take place on Sunday.

Sharif began acting in the 1950s and was propelled to stardom after playing an Arab chief enlisted by Peter O'Toole's T E Lawrence in the World War I drama Lawrence of Arabia, for which he won an Oscar nomination.

An even bigger role followed as the eponymous hero in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago, the adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel of tortured passions during the Russian Revolution.

Known for his raffish good looks, Sharif went on to star in many more films and television productions, including alongside Barbra Streisand in 1968’s Funny Girl.

In later years he became almost as well known for playing bridge and owning thoroughbred racehorses as for his acting.

Fluent in Arabic, English, French, Greek, Italian and Spanish, Sharif spent many years living between France, Italy and the United States, before settling back in his native country.

Born Michel Demitri Shalhoub on April 10, 1932 in the Egyptian city of Alexandria to parents of Syrian and Lebanese descent, Sharif was raised a Catholic.

His former wife, the Egyptian actress Faten Hamama, died earlier this year on January 17 at the age of 83.

The two met while filming the romantic drama Sira' Fi Al-Wadi, or Struggle in the Valley, and fell in love. Hamama divorced her then husband, the Egyptian film director Ezzel Dine Zulficar, and Sharif converted to Islam so that he could marry her.

The couple went on to star together in nearly 10 films, the last being Nahr El Hub, or River of Love, a 1961 Arabic remake of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.

They had one son, Tarek, before divorcing in 1974.

Sharif never remarried, but had another son, Robin, from a brief relationship with Italian journalist Lula De Luca.

In a 2003 interview with a newspaper, Sharif blamed the constant travelling for his role in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia for his and Hamama's divorce.

“It separated me from my wife, from my family,” he said. “We didn’t see each other anymore and that was it, the end of our marriage. I might have been happier having stayed an Egyptian film star.”

* Agence France-Presse