Omar Sharif, one of the most famous actors of the 20th century, died on July 12, 2015, at the age of 83. The Egyptian actor, who had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, suffered a heart attack in a Paris hospital, according to his agent. Sharif was a global superstar thanks to his roles in “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Doctor Zhivago,” and “Funny Girl. ” He was nominated for two Academy Awards and won a Golden Globe and a César Award.
His charisma on screen made him a romantic leading man, but his private life was marked by a gambling addiction and a mercurial temper. On the night of July 5, 2003, at the casino in Enghien-les-Bains, a 71-year-old Sharif was at the roulette table. He had recently told an interviewer that he had stopped gambling ten years earlier. What happened next involved a croupier, a raised voice, a called police officer, and a sudden forward movement of Sharif’s forehead.
The court in Pontoise did not take the shocking incident lightly. The French public, however, did. To understand how the man who once rode out of a mirage ended up in a suburban police station at age 71, unrepentant and quite pleased with himself, you have to go back to a chubby little boy in Alexandria whom his mother could not look at. He was born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub on April 10, 1932, in Alexandria, at that time probably the most pleasant city on earth for a person with money and no fixed nationality.
The Chalhoubs were Melkite Greek Catholics of Lebanese origin. His father, Joseph, had come down from Zahlé in the Bekaa Valley and built a prosperous trade in precious woods. In his memoirs, the son said the business books had not always been entirely honest. It was his mother who set the course of his life, however.
Claire Saada was a society hostess of the type that Egypt produced in large numbers before the revolution. Her distinction was that King Farouk came to her home to play cards, and he kept coming. She was said to be one of the few in Cairo who could sit opposite him and match him bet for bet. The young son watched as the chips moved across the table.
He would spend 70 years trying to reproduce that feeling and would eventually lose an apartment doing it. Claire had decided at his birth, he later said, that he would become the most handsome and most famous man in the world. She was, he told Al Jazeera in 2007, a “crazy woman. ” When he grew fat at age 11, her reaction was not maternal concern but disgust.
“My son is ugly. I cannot bear it,” she said. He was beaten and sent to a British boarding school in Egypt, Victoria College, where he was punished for being overweight. Within a year he was slim and handsome and never fat again.
He was also someone who had learned that affection was conditional on performance. Victoria College was a British boarding school run on the full imperial model. Arabic was forbidden. Cricket was compulsory.
Corporal punishment was administered by teachers who wrote melancholy poetry in their spare time. Michel Shalhoub learned the rules faster than the English boys and then imposed them on everyone smaller than himself. He became head monitor. On non-uniform days he wore a white carnation in his buttonhole.
And among the younger boys over whom he had charge was a shy but furious Palestinian three years his junior named Edward Said. Half a century later, Said settled the score in his memoirs “Out of Place,” and it is not a flattering portrait. He recalled Shalhoub as “notorious for his stylish brilliance and his equally stylish and inventive cruelty to the younger boys,” and he remembered him as his principal tormentor. In one incident, said Said, “a boy mocked the head monitor’s carnation and almost got his arm twisted out of its socket for it.
” “Why? ” asked the boy, gasping. “Why did Shalhoub do this? ” “Because I enjoy it, frankly,” Shalhoub reportedly said.
From Victoria College, Shalhoub went on to study at Cairo University and then moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His breakthrough came when director David Lean cast him in “Lawrence of Arabia” in 1962. For the role of Sherif Ali, he had to overcome his fear of camels and learn to ride. The film made him an international star and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
He adopted the stage name Omar Sharif, a combination of his given name and a nod to the Arabic word for “noble. ” He converted to Islam to marry the Egyptian actress Faten Hamama, with whom he had one son. The marriage ended in divorce in 1974, and he converted to Catholicism, though he later said he believed in a higher power rather than any organized religion. He was known for his love of bridge and horse racing as well as gambling.
He even wrote a syndicated newspaper column about bridge. His gambling led to a memorable scene in his later career when he played a gambler in the 2003 French film “Monsieur Ibrahim,” a role that earned him his second César nomination. But his most notorious real-life gambling story occurred at the casino in Enghien-les-Bains in 2003. The incident began when Sharif, who had a reputation for losing his temper as well as his money, got into a dispute with a croupier.
The details are murky, but Sharif, perhaps frustrated with the turn of the cards, pushed forward his head and headbutted the croupier. The croupier’s nose was broken, and the police were called. Sharif spent the night in a cell. At his trial in 2004, he apologized to the croupier and said he was not a violent man.
He was found guilty and given a one-month suspended prison sentence and a €6,000 fine. He later described the event as “a very unfortunate incident” and said he had been “provoked. ” The case was widely covered in the French press, and Sharif’s behavior was a stark contrast to his suave on-screen persona. He was also sued by a man who claimed Sharif had punched him in a London club in 2005.
That case was settled out of court. In 2007, he was sued by a former manager who claimed Sharif had broken his nose in a dispute over a bridge game. The lawsuit was dismissed. Sharif’s health declined in his later years.
He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2014, and his condition deteriorated rapidly. He died on July 12, 2015, in a hospital in Cairo, where he had been living with his son. He was 83. He was buried in Cairo, in a private ceremony attended by his family and close friends.
His final resting place is a marble tomb engraved with the name “Omar Sharif. ” The inscription reads, “Here lies Omar Sharif. He was a great actor, a wonderful human being, and a loving father. ”
His legacy endures on film.
He was the first Egyptian actor to win an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for “Lawrence of Arabia” and later earned a Best Actor nomination for “Doctor Zhivago. ” He also won a César Award for Best Actor for his performance in “Monsieur Ibrahim” in 2004. In addition to his acting, he was a noted bridge player and represented Egypt in international tournaments. He authored a book on bridge and a memoir, “The Eternal Male,” in 1977.
He was also a humanitarian and served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations. His life was one of contradictions: a man who was both a romantic icon and a volatile figure; a man who traveled the world but never really left his past behind. He said in one of his last interviews, “I have lived my life to the fullest. I have no regrets.
” His death was met with an outpouring of tributes from fans and fellow actors alike. Steven Spielberg called him “a national treasure” and “a joy to work with. ” The Egyptian Ministry of Culture posthumously honored him with the Order of Merit. The final twist is that the boy who was born Michel Chalhoub and became Omar Sharif was once the head monitor who tormented Edward Said, but in later life he claimed that he and Said had reconciled before Said’s death in 2003.
In his memoir, Sharif wrote that he was “very sorry” for his behavior at school and that he had been “a bully. ” He also said that he had no memory of the incident with the carnation. The two men were said to have met at a book signing and shared a moment of understanding.
The article does not confirm whether the reconciliation actually took place.