Omar Sharif

Sharif in 2004, photo by Denis Makarenko/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub

Date of Birth: 10 April, 1932

Place of Birth: Alexandria, Kingdom of Egypt

Date of Death: 10 July, 2015

Place of Death: Cairo, Egypt

Ethnicity: Egyptian/Lebanese

Omar Sharif was an Egyptian actor. He was also known as Omar el-Sherief and Omar Cherif.

He was the son of Claire (Saada) and Joseph Chalhoub, a precious woods merchant. He had a son with his former wife, actress and producer Faten Hamama. He was born to a Melkite Catholic family, and converted to Islam in 1955, when he married Faten. His grandson is actor, model, author, and gay activist Omar Sharif, Jr.

Omar’s maternal grandmother was named Abla Abdallah.

Omar has often been described as having been of Lebanese and/or Syrian descent, with some reports suggesting that his parents were from the city of Zahlé. In 1996, he appeared in the documentary Lebanon… Imprisoned Splendour.

However, in a 2009 appearance on Nile Cinema, an Egyptian television program, Omar stated that his parents and grandparents were all Egyptian. He stated the same in a 2010 interview.

Source: Genealogy of Omar Sharif (focusing on his mother’s side) – https://www.geni.com

Sharif in 2009, photo credit: nicogenin

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