The great Egyptian film actor Omar Sharif (1932-2015) is remembered today on what would have been his 86th birthday.
Google's latest Doodle captures the smouldering gaze that made Sharif an international star in the 1960s following his breakthrough supporting turn as the wry Sherif Ali in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
Ali's entrance, shot by Freddie Young, is one of the most famous in screen history: emerging from the desert haze as a dark figure on the horizon, he rides his camel to meet Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) in the foreground before abruptly shooting dead the latter's Bedouin guide for drinking from his well without permission.
Google Doodles
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1/92 Omar Sharif Google Doodle celebrating Omar Sharif Google
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3/92 John Harrison Google Doodle celebrating John Harrison Google
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18/92 Children's Day 2017 Google Doodle celebrating Children's Day 2017 Google
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Sharif went on to play a huge range of roles, benefiting from Hollywood's then far more laissez faire attitude towards race to specialise in non-American characters from pretty much anywhere.
He appeared as an Armenian king in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), a Spanish Civil War priest in Behold a Pale Horse (1964), a Yugoslav dissenter in The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1965), a Nazi intelligence officer in The Night of the Generals (1967) and the title roles in two historical biopics, Genghis Khan (1965) and Che (1969).
Equally content as Mongol warlord or Cuban guerilla, aided by a natural gift for languages, Sharif's greatest role was surely the lead in Doctor Zhivago (1965), his second sprawling epic for Lean taken from Boris Pasternak's popular 1957 novel of love amid the Russian Revolution.
A hugely ambitious undertaking, Lean's adaptation of a book banned in the Soviet Union had to be filmed in Spain and Finland, a shoot complicated by the firing of cinematographer Nic Roeg (later an admired director in his own right) over creative differences with Lean, a notorious martinet on set, paving the way for the return of Young behind the camera.
The result nevertheless took home five Academy Awards despite reservations from contemporary critics about its lengthy three-hour running time.
Among the most scathing responses came from The New Yorker's Pauline Kael, who complained: "It isn't shoddy (except for the music); it isn't soap opera; it's stately, respectable and dead."
While the naysayers failed to deter audiences, who ensured Zhivago was a box office hit, such disdain is understandable in context.
With the French Novelle Vague in full swing and the New Hollywood of Easy Rider (1969) just around the corner, MGM's romance must have seemed old-fashioned, the product of an exhausted studio system bereft of fresh ideas and falling back on reliable formulas.
Ralph Richardson with Sharif and Geraldine Chaplin (Warner Brothers)
The film was given a 4K restoration by the BFI three years ago for its 50th anniversary, however, and today its sweep and grandeur can hardly fail to impress. It has arguably aged better than many of the supposedly more groundbreaking works that succeeded it.
Sharif stars as Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago, a medical student and poet caught up in the events of 1917. He is taken in by the bourgeois Gromeko family in Moscow after his mother's death and eventually marries their daughter Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin), only to fall for Lara Antipova (Julie Christie), herself married to zealous Bolshevik Pasha (Tom Courtenay).
Lean's film follows Yuri and Lara's fortunes after they escape to the Ural Mountains while his half-brother Yevgraf (Alec Guinness), a senior KGB official under Stalin, searches for their lost daughter Tanya in the present day.
Yuri and Lara share an intimate moment (Warner Brothers)
An enviable cast is rounded out by Ralph Richardson, Rod Steiger and Klaus Kinski. Sharif's own son Tariq, played the young Yuri in the film's unforgettable funeral scene.
Maurice Jarre's score, despite Kael's jibe, remains one of cinema's most memorable, with "Lara's Theme" in particular loved by millions.
Sharif is superbly soulful as the disappointed idealist, a role he was given after O'Toole, Paul Newman, Michael Caine and Max von Sydow had all been considered.
Geraldine Chaplin and Sharif as Tonya and Yuri (Warner Brothers)
Christie and Courtenay were chosen after Lean was impressed by Billy Liar (1963), the former luminous in a part she was perhaps always better suited to than her old kitchen sink co-star was to his.
Sharif would go on to enjoy a colourful life and other hits, notably Funny Girl (1968) with Barbara Streisand, but somehow struggled to find work of consistently high quality.
Omar Sharif's life in pictures
18 show all Omar Sharif's life in pictures
1/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures American actress and singer Barbra Streisand with actor Omar Sharif (whose name is misspelt on the chair behind), circa 1980. They are recreating their love scene from the 1968 film 'Funny Girl' Getty Images
2/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Still of Omar Sharif and Pierre Boulanger in Monsieur Ibrahim (2003) Sony Pictures
3/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Geraldine Chaplin and Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago (1965) Warner Bros
4/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Still of Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago (1965)
5/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Still of Geraldine Chaplin and Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago (1965)
6/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Still of Julie Christie and Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago (1965) Warner Bros
7/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Still of Omar Sharif and Rod Steiger in Doctor Zhivago (1965)
8/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Still of Julie Christie and Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago (1965)
9/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Still of Julie Christie and Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago (1965)
10/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia
11/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Still of Omar Sharif and Ralph Richardson in Doctor Zhivago (1965) Warner Bros
12/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures 25th January 1980: Actor Omar Sharif at the Sunday Times International Bridge Pairs Championships, in London. Getty Images
13/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Actors Anouk Aimee and Omar Sharif in a scene from the film 'The Appointment', 1969. Getty Images
14/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Omar Sharif is Prince Romodanovsky, Olegar Fedoro is Boyar Lopukhin in 'Peter the Great'
15/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Still of Omar Sharif and Zuleikha Robinson in Hidalgo (2004) Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
16/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Still of Omar Sharif in Monsieur Ibrahim (2003) Sony Pictures
17/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Actor Omar Sherif attends the Closing Ceremony at the Sala Grande during the 66th Venice Film Festival in 2009 in Venice, Italy Getty Images
18/18 Omar Sharif's life in pictures Omar Sharif speaks after he was awarded as Best actor of the year during the 29th Nuit des Cesars at the Chatelet theatre in Paris in 2004 Getty Images
"What killed my career was appearing in a succession of films you wouldn't turn down. They were by good directors, but they were bad films," he said, singling out Behold a Pale Horse, The Appointment (1969) and The Horseman (1971).
Sharif worked steadily for the rest of his life despite these duds and would no doubt have accepted their failure with a philosophical shrug as a devoted card player and gambler accustomed to the whims of fate.
Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor best known for starring in classic films like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, would have been 86 today. Google celebrated the late actor’s birthday with a Doodle on Tuesday.
So who is the international star depicted in a dashing Google animation?
Omar Sharif in 2013 Zak Hussein/Getty
Omar Sharif in 2013
After beginning his acting career as a teenager in Egypt and appearing in more than a dozen movies, he was catapulted to international stardom with his breakout role in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia.
Playing the Arab warrior Sherif Ali, the actor made one of cinema’s most memorable entrances as he emerged from the horizons galloping on a camel. The role earned him his first Golden Globe award.
After proving himself in English-speaking roles, Sharif quickly became one of the first actors from the Arab world to dominate the silver screen.
His striking good looks, charisma and ability to speak multiple languages helped him land a handful of notable roles including the titular part in Doctor Zhivago, which earned him an Oscar nomination.
Omar Sharif Denis Cameron/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty
Omar Sharif
Sharif eventually become known for playing the exotic leading man in roles such as The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), Genghis Khan (1965) and a big-time gambler in Funny Girl (1968).
Off-screen, Sharif married Egyptian actress Faten Hamama but they later divorced.
“It gave me glory, but it gave me loneliness also,” Sharif said of his career in a 2007 interview.
He died of a heart attack in 2015 at his home in Cairo, Egypt. He was 83.
The Google Doodle for April 10 celebrates the actor Omar Sharif on what would have been his 86th birthday.
Sharif is most famous for his iconic role and first appearance in the 1962 film, Lawrence of Arabia, which got him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.
Who is Omar Sharif?
Omar Sharif was born Michael Dimitri Shalhoub in Alexandria, Egypt on April 10, 1932. Sharif excelled academically, studying in British Victoria College in Alexandria and then graduating from the University of Cairo with a degree in mathematics and physics.
He had a natural affinity for languages and would become fluent in English, Italian, French, Spanish and Arabic.
His mother was a renowned society hostess who actually counted King Farouk as one of her regular visitors prior to his deposition in 1952.
His father was in the lumber industry and Sharif worked with him for a time, however, much to his father’s disappointment, Sharif left for London when he got accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Sharif became a star in his home country in the late 1950s and subsequently married the Egyptian actress Faten Hamama, converting to Islam so the wedding could go ahead.
Lawrence of Arabia was Sharif’s first English-language role, one he reportedly got after the film’s director, David Lean, spotted a photograph of the actor and decided to give him a screen test.
The film went on to become a critical and box-office hit, scoring ten Oscar nominations, including a Best Supporting Actor nod for Sharif.
Lawrence of Arabia turned Sharif into a bonafide Hollywood star, and the actor followed the epic film with another, starring in The Fall of the Roman Empire.
He worked again with David Lean in 1965 when the director decided to cast him in the eponymous role of Doctor Zhivago in the adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s Nobel prize-winning novel.
Throughout his career, Sharif confounded stereotypes, playing everyone from Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia and a Russian doctor in Doctor Zhivago to an American gambler in Funny Girl opposite Barbra Streisand.
Though his later acting career failed to build on the highs of these films, plagued by heavy gambling and hell-raising with Peter O’Toole, Sharif famously said he had no regrets about his life: ‘I don't know the meaning of the word. If I was back there again, I would do it the same way. Luckily, not everything I did was rubbish for money. I have had some great moments.’
What is a Google Doodle?
Google Doodles are the tech giant’s way of commemorating significant cultural events around the world. They are referenced on the Google homepage with a doodle - an illustration or animation - that is incorporated into the Google logo.
The very first Google Doodle was simply a stick-man standing behind the second ‘o’ in the Google logo. The search engine co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page drew it in 1998 to commemorate their trip to that year’s Burning Man Festival. Users responded positively to the frequent changes to Google’s homepage logo, and so the Doodles became an everyday feature.
The Google Doodle celebrates actor Omar Sharif on what would have been his 86th birthday
Today, a team of ‘Doodlers’ - illustrators, graphic designers, animators and artists - work on the Google Doodles. The logos are hyperlinked to a page that provides the reader with more information about the cultural event being celebrated.
The latest Google Doodle celebrates Omar Sharif with illustrations of that show the actor in ‘true dashing form’. It was created by guest artist Sophie Diao to honour an actor who ‘continued on an incredible journey that made his indelible mark on Cinema in the Arab world and beyond’.
Recent Google Doodles include celebrations of the Commonwealth Games 2018, the Pakistani singer and activist Nazia Hassan, and Pi Day.
