Michel Demitri Chalhoub was born on 10 April 1932, in Alexandria, Egypt, into a family of Syrian-Lebanese descet, and as Omar Sharif was known as a film actor, particularly famous for his roles in ‘Lawrence of Arabia'(1962) and ‘Doctor Zhivago'(1965). Sadly, Omar Sharif passed away following a heart attack on 10 July 2015, having suffered with Alzheimer’s disease for a short period.
So just how rich was Omar Sharif? Sources estimate that Omar’s net worth was around $2 million, accumulated during his lengthy career in the movie industry, but by his own admission largely squandered through his gambling habit.
Omar Sharif Net Worth $2 Million
Omar was educated at Victoria College, and although good at, and interested in languages – he was to become proficient in French, Italian, Spanish and Greek as well as Arabic and English – he subsequently graduated from Cairo University with a degree in physics and mathematics. Although working in his father’s business in precious woods, Omar also studied at RADA in London, but then began his acting career in Egypt in 1954, swiftly becoming a star with roles in “Sleepless”, “Lady of the Palace” and “River of Love’, adapted from Anna Karenina. These roles were instrumental in starting to build Omar’s net worth. About this time, Michel Chalhoub adopted the pseudonym of Omar Sharif, meaning ‘the noble man’ in Arabic
In 1962, Omar Sharif was selected by director David Lean for the authentic role of Sharif Ali in the film “Lawrence of Arabia”, a popular account of an English hero of World War One. Omar’s performance earned him an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor, and winning him two Golden Globe Awards, as well as promoting him to fame around the world, and adding considerably to his net worth.
Omar Sharif was quickly cast quite deliberately in a variety of roles in several other notable films, including “The Yellow Rolls Royce”, “Genghis Khan”, “The Night of the Generals”, and as Che Guevara in “Che!” Then David Lean again cast him, as the star in “Doctor Zhivago”, which received 10 nominations for Oscars, and which won Omar another Golden Globe. He then played opposite Barbra Streisand in “Funny Girl”, controversial in his home country as Streisand was a known supporter of Israel. This didn’t prevent him also starring in the sequel “Funny Lady” in 1975, but meantime he also starred in “Mackenna’s Gold”, “Juggernaut” and “The Tamarind Seed” with such stars as Gregory Peck, Richard Harris and Julie Andrews. All these projects contributed significantly to Omar’s net worth.
During the following years, Omar’s roles became fewer, and certainly less interesting to audiences. However, the occasional starring role still arose, such as in the French film “Monsieur Ibrahim”, which brought Omar Sharif a Cesar Award for Best Actor. More recent appearances were in “Heritage”, and finally in “Rock the Casbah”. Overall, Omar appeared in more than 70 films on the big screen, and 15 on TV.
Aside from acting, Omar Sharif had almost another complete life. He was a world class bridge player, and was a columnist on the subject for the Chicago Tribune. He wrote or co-authored several books on the subject, and contributed to several video games and MS-DOS publications. However, he was also an inveterate gambler, which cost him considerable sums of money, hence his relatively modest net worth at the time of his death. In later life he described himself self-deprecatingly as ‘a useless person who plays cards’, but his easy charm and good humour never faltered.
In his rather less than private personal life, Omar Sharif was married only once, to Egyptian actress Faten Hamama from 1954-74, although they separated years earlier; they had one son. He was reputed to have had several relationships, most notably with Barbra Streisand in the late 60s, but publicly he was always careful to protect his partners from media coverage.
Although Omar Sharif was at the height of his acting fame some years before his death, he remained popular with audiences around the world from his long-lasting aforementioned starring roles which brought him world-wide attention. No doubt replays of these films will continue to be viewed for many years to come.
