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Omar Sharif: Roles
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Sharif credits the 1962 film "Lawrence of Arabia" with launching his international acting career. His role in that David Lean epic earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, and led to his first Hollywood film contract. The role ... made him an attractive emissary of Egypt, where Sharif was a matinee idol, and Gamel Abdel Nasser was the country's charismatic, anti-Western leader.
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Sharif took the first step in his career when he applied to The Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London. However, something came up and changed all his plans. His school mate the director Youssef Chahine, who had just come back from America where he studied cinema, phoned him to ask whether he was interested in a screen test for the main role in a film he was preparing. He remembers vividly the day of the screen test:
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Television has been kinder to Sharif in later years. He made his TV-movie debut in the earnest, all-star "The Poppy Is Also a Flower" (ABC, 1968), about international drug trading, and has remained active in that medium. Some longforms have provided him with excellent roles, better showcases than he had gotten on the big screen. He was a professional gambler in "The Pleasure Palace" (CBS, 1980), Ben Cross' Indian mentor in "The Far Pavilions" (HBO, 1984), a Turkish sultan in "Harem" (ABC, 1986), a Russian Prince in "Peter the Great" (NBC, 1986), a romantic Frenchman in the comedy "Mrs. 'arris Goes to Paris" (CBS, 1992) and a sorcerer in the superb adaptation of Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (NBC, 1996).
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[D]irector David Lean suggested to Omar that he accept the role of the main character. Omar had earlier asked that he be given the part of another character, Pasha because of his love for Pasternak's book.
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