Sharif’s role, a fictional envoy named Sherif Ali, though the most physically demanding of his career (“Lean hated actors. Finally, he said, ‘That’s very good, Omar. He simply walked round me to see my profile. When I got off the plane, he didn’t say ‘Hello’. “We landed right next to him, but he didn’t move one step. “As we came in to land we could see (Lean) sitting all by himself,” Sharif recounted years later. Sharif, who, thanks to his childhood, spoke good English, was whisked off on a plane to the desert to meet the director. In 1962, English director David Lean was preparing to tell the story of Lawrence of Arabia, and demanded that his casting directors bring him Arab actors to give his film an air of authenticity.Īsser Yassin and Omar Sharif. Luck also played its part in his step up to international fame. “Most have to work for years from the time they know they want to make movies for a living before becoming a success, but for him it was a stroke of luck that led him to discover his talent. “He proved to be a really charismatic and talented actor, which was really kind of miraculous,” says Ramses. The films, particularly “The Blazing Sun,” proved to be a huge success, and led to Sharif teaming up with Chahine again and again throughout the 50s, and quickly becoming a star himself. (Getty)Ĭhahine, only a few years into his filmmaking career himself, cast Sharif in two films in 1954, opposite the country’s then-biggest star, Faten Hamama, who had been a major box-office draw for more than a decade.

Omar Sharif and Faten Hamama in a scene from the film 'Siraa Fil-Wadi', 1954. “He was a really handsome young man who probably hadn’t dreamed of working in cinema, who got noticed by a young and talented director, who made him a star within a couple of movies (alongside) Egypt’s most prestigious actress,” Ramses tells us.

Sharif studied mathematics and physics at Cairo University before moving into film, and while reports often include the note that he studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, the school itself has no record of him ever attending.Īccording to renowned Egyptian filmmaker and newly appointed director of the Cairo International Film Festival Amir Ramses, the real story involved a bit more luck, and an encounter with Egypt’s most acclaimed filmmaker, Youssef Chahine. Part of the lore of how the great Sharif found his way in front of the camera has been proven to be mythmaking. His mother Claire Saada was one of the country’s most renowned socialites, hosting Egypt’s King Farouk regularly throughout Sharif’s youth, after his family moved to Cairo when he was four. ‘Sharif’ means nobleman, and it’s easy to see why he took to the name.

I’d always reply, ‘There will be only one Omar Sharif,’” Yassin tells Arab News.īorn in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1932 as Michael Yusef Dimitri Chaloub, Sharif - who took that name when he began his filmmaking career - was raised in a multi-lingual household, his parents having moved from Zahle, Lebanon decades before his birth, and he had an early affinity for languages, picking up not only Arabic, English and his mother’s French, but Italian and Spanish, too.Įgyptian actor Omar Sharif (left) with English director David Lean (1908 - 1991) on the set of 'Lawrence Of Arabia,' 1962. “I was always compared to him and even told that I would be his successor.

Omer shareef