Dementia robs Sharif of glory days
Cars hoot at him, passers-by stare and children wave at the wizened, silver-haired man walking along the pavement in Cairo. It is the actor Omar Sharif, perhaps the most famous living Egyptian.
Sadly, there are days when he does not seem to know it, however: the 83-year-old star of Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia is suffering from Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia. He has trouble remembering what he did yesterday, let alone his Hollywood heyday, his family has revealed.
‘‘There are moments when he’s better but others when he gets extremely bewildered,’’ said Tarek Sharif, 58, his only son. ‘‘It’s obvious that it’ll only get worse.’’
Famed for a mischievous, gaptoothed smile, smouldering eyes and ruinous gambling habit, the actor who played alongside Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago has little idea why so many people go up to him in the street to say ‘‘hello’’.
‘‘Often he thinks it’s someone he knew from before and whose name he has forgotten,’’ said Tarek. ‘‘But in most cases it’s simply a fan.’’
Tarek, who as a child played Zhivago’s eight-year-old son Yuri in the 1965 David Lean film, first noticed something was wrong with his father in 2011 when he lashed out at a woman trying to pose for a photograph with him on the red carpet during a film festival in Qatar.
It seems ironic that Sharif, who besides winning three Golden Globes is also famed as a worldclass bridge player, was at the festival to promote a movie in which he plays a retired Tour de France cyclist suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Born in Alexandria, Sharif, the son of a Catholic wood merchant of Lebanese descent, still visits Cairo but lives these days in a hotel at the tourist resort of El Gouna, about 430km south of the capital on the Red Sea.
‘‘He comes down for breakfast then sits on the terrace,’’ Tarek, a restaurant proprietor, told Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
‘‘Each night he visits the hotel bar and listens to the music. He feels very insecure when he leaves the hotel. Sometimes I take him to eat in my restaurant. The next day he’s forgotten.’’
In January when Tarek told him about the death of his mother, Faten Hamama, the actress Sharif had married in 1955 and for whom he had converted to Islam, he barely seemed to take note: ‘‘A few days later, he said, ‘How is Faten?’’’
As Tarek was talking in a restaurant, the actor sat nearby at the bar, staring at a crumpled black and white family portrait. It showed him with Hamama holding baby Tarek in her arms. The two were a mythical couple of Egyptian cinema until he divorced her in 1974.
‘‘Who is this?’’ Sharif kept repeating, pointing at the baby in the photograph. In response the barman mumbled a few words, trying to change the subject.
Sharif, who studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, witnessed the turmoil engulfing the streets of Cairo in 2011, when a revolution deposed President Hosni Mubarak. He watched from the balcony of his room at the InterContinental hotel, his previous address. His condition seemed to deteriorate after that.
‘‘I began to suspect that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s,’’ said Tarek. ‘‘He didn’t look well.’’
Doctors gave him medicine and recommended various exercises to slow the advance of the disease.
‘‘He has never done the exercises. He refuses. He has not accepted that he is ill. My father has always had a very strong character.’’
Reflecting in 2012 on his role in Lawrence of Arabia, Sharif said Lean ‘‘didn’t know me. He just said, ‘I want an Arab person to play this Lawrence of Arabia thing. I want a real Arab who speaks English’.’’
His son has long since given up acting to run restaurants; it is left to the actor’s grandson, Omar, to carry on the tradition. Omar Jr, who confessed in 2012 to being gay and half- Jewish and fearful for his security in strife-torn Egypt, told El Mundo his grandfather, known for his hand-kissing and debonair charm, had taught him to behave like ‘‘a gentleman’’.
‘‘From him I learnt good manners at a table, how to enjoy a good wine, how to pick appropriate topics of conversation, to ride a horse, to bet on them and play cards,’’ he said.
‘‘He told me that playing bridge is like making love. You need a good partner or a good hand.’’
He feels very insecure when he leaves the hotel. Sometimes I take him to eat in my restaurant. The next day he’s forgotten.
Tarek Sharif