Pakistan's Ambassador to Germany, Mohammad Faisal, was one of the first to announce the actor's death. He died shortly before a planned departure on Saturday, his son Jawad Umar said. However, as his condition deteriorated, the flight diverted to Germany and he was treated in a Nuremberg hospital. Sharif, accompanied by his wife Zareen Omer and a medical team, took off in an air ambulance on Tuesday bound for Virginia in the US. I request Prime Minister Imran Khan to come to my support just like I have come to his whenever he has called me.' 'I helped in the making of Imran Khan's Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital. 'The doctor has told me that I need to go abroad to receive the best treatment,' he said in his message, broadcast on a Pakistani talk show. Sharif, who suffered a heart attack in August, had earlier made an appeal to the prime minister to help him secure a visa to seek urgent medical help. My prayers & condolences go to his family.- Imran Khan October 2, 2021 He was one of our great entertainers and will be missed. I had the good fortune of touring with him to raise funds for SKMT. The film is comprised of archival material as well as interviews.Saddened to learn of Umar Sharif's passing. However, after Sadat was assassinated in 1980, Sharif’s hopes were grounded.Ī rough cut for the documentary has already been finished, the filmmakers said. Sharif hoped that his attempts to help Sadat would pave the way for his return to Egypt. The moment, Petersen said, will serve as a turning point in the film. His visit would lead to the signing of the Camp David Accords and the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Sharif played a key part in organising the meeting of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin just before Sadat travelled to Israel in 1977. But there were times the actor was an instigating force in political developments. Politics, Petersen told Variety, had a major impact on the changes in Sharif's life. It’s going beyond biography.”Īnthony Quinn, Peter O'Toole, and Omar Sharif in 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962) IMDb “A reflecting surface to understand Eastern-Western conflict in the last century. “We see him as a vessel of ideology,” Lofty said. However, as his international reputation soared, his name back home was stained by his decision to move West. IMDbĪ few years later Sharif left Egypt, after landing the role in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 that would catapult him to global recognition. Omar Sharif and Faten Hamama in the 1956 film 'Siraa Fil-Mina'. Born Michel Demitri Shalhoub to a Melkite Catholic family of Lebanese ancestry, Sharif changed his name and then converted to Islam when he married Egyptian actress Faten Hamama in 1955, with whom he co-starred in several films. He did not want to politically conform to the nationalism that swept Egypt in the 1950s. Lotfy told Variety that Sharif left Egypt partly due to the strains he felt under Nasser's rule. The more they came to find out, the more multi-faceted and complex Sharif’s identity became. This contrast of opinion inspired the two filmmakers to delve deeper into Sharif’s life. He knew him as a persona non grata, like an Egyptian Judas … We couldn't figure it out. Me, representing the West, I saw him as some Hollywood superstar, playboy, glamour man, while Mark, representing the East and Egypt, had a completely different perception. 'Quite early on in our relationship we realised that we had two very, very different perceptions of Omar Sharif. 'Omar Sharif was a conversation piece that we could always come back to,' Petersen told US magazine Variety. In The Life and Times of Omar Sharif, Egyptian filmmaker Mark Lotfy and Swedish director Axel Petersen will explore how president Gamal Abdel Nasser's policies led to Sharif changing his name, converting to Islam and eventually becoming a world-renowned figure moving between Europe, the US and Egypt. Omar Sharif and Barbra Streisand in 'Funny Girl'. However, a new documentary is set to highlight some lesser-known facts about the Dr Zhivago actor, who died in 2015, examining how the politics of 1950s Egypt shaped Sharif and his career. But the man behind the many guises has always remained a bit of a mystery. Omar Sharif was as enigmatic as he was famous.Īcross his six-decade career, the Egyptian actor starred in Egyptian, American, British, French and Italian productions and played hundreds of characters.

Omer shareef show november 2015