Despite being remembered chiefly for his roles in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962) – in which he shared screen space with the Pakistani legend Zia Mohyeddin – and Dr. Zhivago (1965), Omar Sharif featured in as many as sixty-nine motion pictures and thirteen television productions, including memorable The Far Pavilions (1984).
His ability to speak many different languages lead him to act with ease in Arabic, English and French productions – often as the foreigner. This may well have been Sharif’s highest selling-point, as he himself once acknowledged.
“I spoke French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and even Arabic… with an accent that enabled me to play the role of a foreigner without anyone knowing exactly where I came from, something that has proved highly successful throughout my career,” Steven Charles Caton quotes Omar Sharif in his Lawrence of Arabia: A Film’s Anthropology.
Even in death, he is remembered as 'the Lawrence of Arabia star'
While his multi-lingual identity helped him appear in multiple ethnic roles, his first most memorable act – and Hollywood debut – saw him play a character much closer to home.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
With the life-long fame that Lawrence of Arabia garnered for Sharif, one would have imagined that the Egyptian actor had played the film’s lead. The 1962 motion picture that was based on the life of British archaeologist and military man, Thomas Edward Lawrence, saw Peter O’Toole star in the lead role, while Omar Sharif played Lawrence’s fellow, albeit fictional, revolutionary, Sherif Ali.
Many would still remember Sharif’s first few minutes as a Hollywood actor: enshrouded in a loose black, traditional Arabic dress, he rode down towards the on-looking Lawrence and his guide, Tafas (played by Zia Mohyeddin). Tafas hurriedly drew his gun out of the bag he had loaded on his camel’s back, but a second later he lay dead – Sherif Ali proved to be the quicker of the two.
Lawrence and Ali then go on to develop a closer affiliation, spending many quiet nights in deep discussion. To be honest, Omar Sharif outdoes his British counterpart in some of those scenes, acting truer to his role than O’Toole. It isn’t then a wonder that Sharif was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and won the Golden Globe Award for the same role.
Despite the fact that many still remember him as “The Lawrence of Arabia actor”, many others would recall another, very different performance as his best.
In Dr Zhivago
Dr. Zhivago (1965)
Based on Boris Pasternak’s 1957 novel of the same name, David Lean’s motion picture Dr. Zhivago is one of the few that do justice to the novel. It seems as if Lean’s experiment with Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia was a successful one for both, as the director decided to cast him in the lead this time around. Playing Dr. Zhivago in 1965 must have been like playing Rhett Butler in 1939 – it was a huge responsibility. But luckily for David Lean, Omar Sharif delivered the goods once again.
He speaks little in the part of the Russian doctor, Yuri Zhivago, but when he does, his dialect appears closer to Russian than most of his co-actors (perhaps this is why he was recast as a Russian in The Possessed, motion picture based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel).Two-hundred-minutes, Dr. Zhivago showcases a complex love story, in which people are in love with someone but married to someone else – quite the usual in Russian literature. Yuri Zhivago was not an easy role to pay. Despite his calm demeanour, Dr. Zhivago, in turns, was a passionate lover and a dedicated professional. And, like Sharif’s previous venture with Lean, this time around, too, he had to put up with a potentially overpowering screen presence – that of Academy Award winner Julie Christie.
Omar Sharif in one of his most underrated appearances – playing Che Guevara in the 1969 bio pic Che!
That Christie’s performance as Lara Antipova shined, did not take anything away from Sharif’s performance as Yuri Zhivago – they were both merely playing their unique parts, which saw them playing excellent foils for each other. Despite the fact that the novel, and subsequently the film, is named after the character, Dr. Zhivago was underwhelming as the lead character perhaps because Lara’s story was more striking, and drew the reader (or the viewer) towards her. It is no wonder, then, that she is still remembered as one of the strongest, most complex female characters ever created.
It is, however, a wonder, that Sharif isn’t remembered so much for his masterful portrayal of Dr. Zhivago – a much subtler and, hence, more challenging role – than he is for his for playing Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia.
Later years...
Fifty-Five Years Later – Hard to Shrug the Lawrence of Arabia Tag
Despite making dozens of films – some good, like Dr. Zhivago, some not so much, such as Genghis Khan (1965) – after his 1962 Hollywood debut, Omar Sharif found it hard to regain the popularity and acclaim that Lawrence of Arabia brought. So much so, that even in death, he is remembered as “the Lawrence of Arabia star”.
Considering Sharif’s performance in later movies – especially in Dr. Zhivago, which is my personal favourite – I believe he deserves more credit than that. Let us remember him as the man who played a very wide variety of roles to perfection – it is an accomplishment not many in the acting world can boast.
