The untold story of Omar Sharif
Ervell E. Menezes
The death of one of Hollywood’s greats, Omar Sharif, went almost unnoticed because today’s generation knows precious little of the handsome Egyptian hero, who charmed thousands of women with his looks and acting.
The 1960s were his salad days and playing the hero in Doctor Zhivago (1965) was probably his peak performance. British auteur David Lean made this Boris Pasternack novel throb with life even in those cold wintery Russian conditions.
And wasn’t the ravishing Julie Christie as Larissa an apt co-star, not to mention Maurice Jarre’s haunting “Lara’s theme” that still rings in my old ears though I saw it in my college days before straying into films. It is indeed one of the all-time melodies. Those were the days indeed. Really.
Sharif died of a heart attack at the age of 83 but from the 2000s, he had been suffering from the Alzheimer’s disease. And after the 1970s, he was known more for his bridge exploits than his film career. That he was first married to Egyptian actress Faten Hamama is also not well known.
His films were banned in Egypt for making love to a Jewish woman Barbra Streisand, who played Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (1968), not really one of his better performances. But The Night of the Generals (1967) is one of the most underrated movies of its times.
Sharif plays Major Grau, who is called upon to investigate the death of a German prostitute during the Nazi era. Based on the novel The Night of the Long Knives, it is a taut suspense thriller with Peter O’Toole playing General Tanz, the man with a distinct twitch in his right eye. O’Toole soars over Sharif as he also did in Lawrence of Arabia. But The Night of the Generals also boasted of a host of cameos. There was British character actor Tom Courteney as private Hartman, Donald Pleasance, Charles Gray and even Christopher Plummer. What an extravaganza of talent and yet the film went unsung.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Sharif did come on and off for bit parts as in Great Catherine but that is indeed the fate of many ex-heroes. But it was sad to see Sharif fade away so swiftly. Even though Sharif was not in the same league as the British veteran O’Toole but surely he deserved better.
