Omar Sharif, the Egyptian-born actor with the dark, soulful eyes who soared to international stardom in movie epics, "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Doctor Zhivago," died Friday. He was 83.
Sharif died of a heart attack in a Cairo hospital, his longtime agent, London-based Steve Kenis, and the head of Egypt's Theatrical Arts Guild, Ashraf Zaki, told The Associated Press. The actor had been suffering from Alzheimer's.
Sharif was Egypt's biggest box-office star when director David Lean cast him in 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia." But he was not the director's first choice to play Sherif Ali, the tribal leader with whom the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence teams up to help lead the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire.
Lean had hired another actor but dropped him because his eyes weren't the right color. The film's producer, Sam Spiegel, went to Cairo to search for a replacement and found Sharif. After passing a screen test that proved he was fluent in English, he got the job.
His entrance in the movie was stunning. He was first seen in the distance, a speck in the swirling desert sand. As he drew closer, he emerged first as a black figure on a galloping camel, slowly transforming into a handsome, dark-eyed figure with a gap-tooth smile.
Away from the movies, Sharif was a world-class bridge player who for many years wrote a newspaper column on bridge. He quit the game in later years, however, when he gave up gambling.
Sharif spent much of his later years in Cairo and at the Royal Moncean Hotel in Paris.
"When you live alone and you're not young, it's good to live in a hotel," he told a reporter in 2005. "If you feel lonely, you can go down to the bar. I know all the people who work here and who come here regularly. The room is done for you, and you don't have to worry about anything," he said. "If you feel anything, health-wise, you can call the concierge and tell them to bring all the ambulances in Paris."
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