Omar Sharif dead after Alzheimer’s diagnosis
OMAR Sharif, star of Lawrence Of Arabia and Dr Zhivago, has died at the age of 83.
The Golden Globe winner passed away after a heart attack at a Cairo hospital, his agent said.
Also renowned as one of the world’s greatest bridge players, it was revealed earlier this year he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Antonio Banderas led the tributes to the actor, tweeting: ‘My great friend Omar Sharif has passed away. I will always miss him. He was one of the best.’
In May, the Egyptian actor’s son Tarek El-Sharif, 58, said: ‘My father has Alzheimer’s. It’s difficult to determine what stage.
‘He still knows he’s a famous actor. The loss of memory affects above all specific things, details like when he was in a specific place or who he acted with in a specific film.’ Sharif was best known for playing Arab leader Sharif Ali alongside Peter O’Toole in 1962’s epic Lawrence Of Arabia. He won two Golden Globes. and got a third for Dr Zhivago.
Sharif appeared in 118 film and TV productions over his six- decade career.
Last year he visited film director Jim Sheridan in Dalkey, Co. Dublin, for filming of The Secret Scripture.
In his later years, Sharif became as famous for his prowess with a pack of cards. He became a regular at the casinos of Europe and was ranked one of the top ten bridge players in the world. However, he once claimed he was ‘always one film behind my debts’ and is said to have lost €5million in a single game during the Seventies.
He told BBC’s Desert Island Discs in 1978: ‘I don’t think I could live without a deck of cards in my hands.’
Sharif was born Michel Chalhoub in Alexandria in 1932. His father, Joseph, was a rich timber merchant and his mother, Claire, a prolific gambler.
At the age of ten, he was sent to boarding school, where he had his first taste of acting. He later won a place at the Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts.
He married actress Faten Hamama, his co-star in The Blazing Sun, in 1955. They separated in 1965 after he found great success following Lawrence Of Arabia.
‘I can’t live without a deck of cards’