Omar Sharif (Arabic: عمر الشريف, transliteration: ‘Omar ash-Shareef) (born April 10, 1932) is an Academy Award-nominated Egyptian actor who has starred in many Hollywood films. He has acted in Arabic, French, and English feature films. Sharif is most famous for his roles in Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia.
Sharif was born Michel Demitri Chalhoub in Alexandria, Egypt to Joseph Chalhoub, a Lebanese immigrant and timber merchant, and Claire (Saada), an Egyptian of Syrian descent.[citation needed] Omar Sharif graduated from Alexandria's Victoria College, then from Cairo University with a mathematics and physics major. Afterwards, he worked with his father in the lumber business. Their business was less than successful following the investment of a large amount of capital in an endeavor to revitalize papyrus as a viable commodity.[citation needed]
In 1953, Sharif began his acting career with a role in the Egyptian film, Sira` Fi al-Wadi, (English, The Blazing Sun or...
Created by dipity on Feb 7, 2008
Last updated: 03/11/10 at 03:50 PM
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Hidalgo is a 2004 film based on the life and tales of former horse rider Frank Hopkins and his endurance horse Hidalgo, a mustang. The movie was written by John Fusco and directed by Joe Johnston. It stars Viggo Mortensen, Zuleikha Robinson and Omar Sharif.
Held annually for centuries, the Ocean of Fire-a 3000-mile survival race across the Arabian desert--was a challenge restricted to the finest Arabian horses ever bred of the purest and noblest lines and owned by the greatest royal families. In 1890, a wealthy sheikh invited an American, Frank T. Hopkins, and his mustang horse to enter the race for the first time. During the course of his career, Hopkins had been a cowboy and dispatch rider for the United States of America (U.S.) government. In this capacity he had carried a message to the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, authorizing what became the Wounded Knee Massacre. Currently working as a stunt rider in Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows, Hopkins is advertised as the greatest rider the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317648
Monsieur Ibrahim (full title: Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran) is a 2003 French movie starring Omar Sharif and directed by François Dupeyron. The movie is based on a book and a play by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt.
The film begins in a working-class neighborhood in the 1960s Paris. The main character, Moїse Schmidt (Momo), is a young Jewish boy growing up without a mother and with a father afflicted by crippling depression. Momo is fascinated by the elderly Muslim man (Ibrahim Demildji) who runs a grocery store across the street from his apartment (where Momo often shoplifts). Their relationship develops and soon Momo feels closer to Ibrahim than to his father. Ibrahim affectionately calls Moїse Momo, and adopts him when his father leaves and commits suicide. Momo and Ibrahim go on a journey to Turkey, Ibrahim's homeland. Ibrahim dies there in a car accident, Momo inherits the store and his Koran. In the final scene, we see a young boy shoplifting from the store, and Momo (now a 30...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329388
The 13th Warrior is a 1999 action film based on Michael Crichton's novel Eaters of the Dead, directed by John McTiernan and an uncredited Crichton, and starring Antonio Banderas as Ahmad ibn Fadlan and Vladimir Kulich as Bulywif (Beowulf). The 13th Warrior was a disappointment at the box office, earning only US$61,698,899 worldwide.
The novel upon which the movie is based is loosely inspired by Richard Frye's translation of Ibn Fadlan's non-fictional account of his travels up the river Volga in the tenth century. The plot, however, is largely a modernized retelling of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, with elements added from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. The movie goes to some pains to achieve a historical atmosphere, including use of Arabic, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Greek, and Latin dialogue. Norwegian actor Dennis Storhøi co-starred as Herger the Joyous, while Swedish actor Sven Wollter plays the old Viking chief. Norwegian veteran actress Turid Balke also had a small but...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120657
Top Secret! is a 1984 comedy directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. It stars Val Kilmer in his first feature film, Lucy Gutteridge, Omar Sharif, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough and Jeremy Kemp. The film is a parody of World War II films and Elvis films. The original music score is composed by Maurice Jarre. The film is marketed with the tagline "Movie? What movie?"
The film tells the story of Nick Rivers (Kilmer), an American pop singer (whose songs sound suspiciously like those of Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys and Little Richard), who goes to East Germany to perform in a cultural festival. (Curiously, East Germany still seems to be controlled by Nazis and under attack by the French Resistance.) Whilst there, he becomes involved in a resistance movement and helps the beautiful Hillary Flammond (Gutteridge) rescue her father (Gough), a brilliant scientist being held by the Germans and forced to build the deadly Polaris Mine.
The film also features short performances by,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088286
Oh Heavenly Dog is a 1980 comedy film, written by Rod Browning. The film stars the dog Benji, Chevy Chase, Jane Seymour, and Omar Sharif. The film was directed by Joe Camp, and released by 20th Century Fox.
Chevy Chase plays a private investigator who is called to a job and is killed upon finding a dead woman. The afterlife has not decided if he is destined for Heaven or Hell, so he is given the chance to return to Earth as a dog, in order to solve the case and earn his way to Heaven.
...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081269
Funny Lady is a 1975 film starring Barbra Streisand, James Caan, Omar Sharif, Roddy McDowall, and Ben Vereen.A sequel to the 1964 Broadway musical and subsequent 1968 film version of Funny Girl, it is a highly fictionalized account of the later life and career of comedienne Fanny Brice and her marriage to songwriter and empresario Billy Rose. The screenplay was by Jay Presson Allen and Arnold Schulman, based on a story by Schulman. The primary score was by John Kander and Fred Ebb, whose first success as a team had been the song "My Coloring Book," written for Streisand in 1962. It was directed by Herbert Ross.Although she was contractually bound to make one more film for producer Ray Stark (Fanny Brice's one-time son-in-law), Streisand balked at doing the project, and agreed only after she was threatened with a lawsuit.Her first choice for the role of Rose was Robert Blake, who actually bore a closer resemblance to the character than Caan. He agreed to a read-through of the script at...,
Juggernaut is a rare British entry into the 1970s disaster film cycle. It was produced by David V. Picker Productions and released in 1974 by United Artists. The film was directed by Richard Lester, who took over after directors Bryan Forbes and Don Taylor each left the project in pre-production.
On taking over the film, Lester completely rewrote the script with writer Alan Plater, as he recounts to biographer Andrew Yule. Producer/Writer Richard Alan Simmons, unhappy with the new script, had himself credited as Richard DeKoker on the finished film.
The film was shot mainly aboard a real ocean liner. The Hamburg had recently been sold by its German owners to the Soviet Union. Before the Soviets began operating the liner for paying passengers, they rented it to the film company.
The liner was painted in the livery of a fictional shipping line, very similar to the livery used by the Soviet Morpasflot line, and renamed the Britannic. Advertisements were run in British papers, soliciting...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071706
L'Ile Mysterieuse / La Isla misteriosa y el capitán Nemo / Die Geheimnisvolle Insel (The Mysterious Island) is a 1973 European TV miniseries production adapted from Jules Verne's novel L'Île mystérieuse. It was later re-edited into a motion picture for theatrical release.
This version was directed by Juan Antonio Bardem and Henri Colpi and featured Omar Sharif as Captain Nemo.
This TV miniseries turned out to be one of the most remarkable Jules Verne adaptations, remaining unusually faithful to the original book, including the exterior design of the Nautilus.
Deviations from the original book were either limited to budget restrictions or moderate artistic liberty in a constructive sense: While it seems not credible that the Nemo of the book achieved various, physical demanding stunts (considering he was weakened and subsequently dying of old age), Omar Sharif is much younger, relies on what's left of his crew (killed by some kind of disease) and eventually shares the same fate like...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068748
Mackenna's Gold is a 1969 western film directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Camilla Sparv. It tells the story of how the lure of gold corrupts a diverse group of people.The film was photographed in Super Panavision 70 by Joseph MacDonald, with original music by Quincy Jones. The story is very loosely based around the legend of the Lost adams diggings.An old legend talks about a fortune in gold hidden in the 'Canyon del Oro', guarded by the Apache gods. A man named Adams found it, only to have the Indians capture and blind him and kill all his companions. Years later, Marshal Mackenna (Gregory Peck) kills an Indian chief who tried to bushwack him and comes into possession of a map that supposedly shows the way to the treasure. Though sceptical, he memorizes the directions before burning the map.Meanwhile, notorious Mexican outlaw Colorado (Omar Sharif) and his gang had been tracking the old man for two weeks to get the map, all while being chased by the...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064615
Funny Girl is a musical with a book by Isobel Lennart, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill.
The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of Broadway and film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein. Its original title was My Man.
After seventeen previews, the Broadway production, directed by Garson Kanin and choreographed by Carol Haney under the supervision of Jerome Robbins, opened on March 26 1964 at the Winter Garden Theatre, subsequently transferring to the Majestic Theatre and the Broadway Theatre to complete its total run of 1348 performances. The original cast included Barbra Streisand, Sydney Chaplin, Kay Medford, Danny Meehan, Jean Stapleton, and Lainie Kazan, who also served as Streisand's understudy. Later in the run, Streisand and Chaplin were replaced by Mimi Hines and Johnny Desmond, and Hines' husband and comedy partner Phil Ford also joined the cast.
The musical was produced by...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062994
Mayerling is a 1968 romantic tragedy film starring Omar Sharif, Catherine Deneuve, James Mason, Ava Gardner, Geneviève Page, James Robertson Justice and Andréa Parisy. It was written and directed by Terence Young. The film was made by Les Films Corona and Winchester and distributed by MGM.It was based on the novels Mayerling by Claude Anet and L'Archiduc by Michel Arnold and the 1936 film Mayerling, directed by Anatole Litvak, which dealt with the real-life Mayerling Incident. Although not completely historically accurate, the movie was well received, in part because of its lavish sets and costumes.Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (Omar Sharif) clashes with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (James Mason), over implementing progressive policies for their country. Ava Gardner brilliantly plays his mother Empress Elisabeth. Rudolf soon feels he is a man born at the wrong time in a country that does not realize the need for social reform. The Prince of Wales (James Robertson...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064645
The Night of the Generals is a 1967 World War II film adapted from the novel of the same name by Hans Hellmut Kirst. It stars Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasence, Charles Gray, Philippe Noiret, Joanna Pettet, and Coral Browne.
It was produced by Sam Spiegel and directed by Anatole Litvak, with a musical score by Maurice Jarre. The screenplay was written by Paul Dehn and Joseph Kessel.
The murder of a prostitute in Nazi-occupied Warsaw in 1942, draws Wehrmacht Intelligence Officer, Major Grau (Sharif) into an investigation where the evidence points to the killer being one of three high ranking General Officers, General von Seydlitz-Gabler (Gray), Major General Kalhenberg (Pleasence), his chief of staff and General Tanz (O'Toole).
Grau’s investigation is cut short by his summary transfer to Paris at the instigation of these officers. The case remains closed until all three officers are transferred to Paris in July 1944. Paris is a hotbed of intrigue...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062038
Doctor Zhivago (Russian: Доктор Живаго) is a 1965 film directed by David Lean and loosely based on the famous novel of the same name by Boris Pasternak.
The film takes place for the most part during the tumultuous period of 1905-1922, the years of Bloody Sunday and the 1905 Revolution, World War I, the Russian Revolution, and Russian Civil War, as the regime of Emperor Nicholas II was overthrown and the Soviet Union established. A framing device, from which the film is narrated, takes place in the mid-to-late 1950s, though a specific date is not mentioned.
The film's framing device involves General Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guinness) searching for the love child of his brother, poet and doctor Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), and his mistress Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie); Yevgraf believes a young girl named Tonya Komarov (Rita Tushingham, referred to as "The Girl" in the credits) to be his niece. Yevgraf narrates the story, periodically appearing in it, though rarely interacts...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059113
The Fall of the Roman Empire is a 1964 epic film made by Samuel Bronston Productions and The Rank Organisation, and released by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Anthony Mann and produced by Samuel Bronston with Jaime Prades and Michal Waszynski as associate producers. The screenplay was by Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina and Philip Yordan. The cinematography was by Robert Krasker and the original music score by Dimitri Tiomkin. The historian Will Durant was engaged to advise on period detail and plot.
The film starred Sophia Loren (Lucilla), Stephen Boyd (Livius), Alec Guinness (Marcus Aurelius), James Mason (Timonides), Christopher Plummer (Commodus), Mel Ferrer (Cleander), and Omar Sharif (Sohamus, King of Armenia) with Finlay Currie (Caecina), Anthony Quayle (Verulus), John Ireland (Ballomar), Eric Porter (Julianus), Andrew Keir (Polybius), Douglas Wilmer (Niger) and George Murcell (Victorinus).
The film was a financial failure at the box-office. However, it is considered...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058085
Lawrence of Arabia is an award-winning 1962 film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Austrian Sam Spiegel (through his British company, Horizon Pictures), from a script by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson (Lean and Spiegel had recently completed the acclaimed film, The Bridge on the River Kwai). It is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential films in the history of filmmaking. The dramatic score by Maurice Jarre, and Super Panavision 70 cinematography by Freddie Young, are also hugely acclaimed.The film depicts Lawrence's experiences in Arabia during World War I, in particular his attacks on Aqaba and Damascus and his involvement in the Arab National Council. Its themes include Lawrence's emotional struggles with violence in war (especially the conflicts between Arabic tribes and the slaughter of the Turkish army), his personal identity ("Who are you?" is a recurring line...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172
Omar Sharif was born in Alexandria, Egypt
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