Omar Sharif honoured in Oscars ceremony

Omar Sharif has been remembered by the Oscars in this year’s In Memoriam section of the Academy Awards ceremony.

The Egyptian-born actor never won an Oscar, was nominated for Lawrence of Arabia (as best supporting actor) but, remarkably, not for Doctor Zhivago, the film for which he is arguably best remembered. However, he did win a Golden Globe for both roles.

Sharif established himself as an actor in Egypt before making the switch to Hollywood in the early 60s, with the David Lean-directed Lawrence of Arabia, where he featured in the famous shot riding a camel out of the desert. Sharif went on to appear in Funny Girl (opposite Barbra Streisand), the poorly-received Ché! and the cold war romantic thriller The Tamarind Seed.

Sharif died in Cairo aged 83 in 2015. His last credit was the educational film 1001 Inventions and the World of Ibn Al-Haytham, but he had experienced a late career revival with the award-winning 2003 drama Monsieur Ibrahim.