Lawrence of Arabia star Omar Sharif was more than an actor

Egypt-born Sharif won two Golden Globe awards and an Oscar nomination for his role as Sherif Ali in David Lean's 1962 epic ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. He won a further Golden Globe three years later for ‘Doctor Zhivago’. Earlier this year, his agent confirmed he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He suffered a heart attack on Friday afternoon in a hospital in Cairo.

Born Michel Shalhoub in Alexandria in April 1932, Sharif started out in his family's lumber business before going to London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada). He made his screen debut in the 1954 Egyptian film ‘Siraa Fil-Wadi’ (The Blazing Sun) and rapidly became a star in his own country.

His big break came when David Lean cast him in ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, introducing the actor with a now-legendary shot of him riding a camel out of a shimmering heat haze towards the camera. Peter O'Toole, who played TE Lawrence in the 1962 multiple Oscar-winner, considered Sharif's name ridiculous and insisted on calling him ‘Fred’. The pair soon became fast friends.

In later life, Sharif claimed to be baffled by the film's success, saying it had merely been shots of people on camels walking from one side of the screen to the other. David Lean went on to cast Sharif in the title role of his next epic ‘Doctor Zhivago’, in which he played a physician caught up in the Russian Revolution.

The actor went through a daily routine of hair-straightening and skin-waxing in order to disguise his Egyptian looks and would later admit the film lad left him close to a nervous breakdown. Other notable roles came opposite Barbra Streisand in her first film ‘Funny Girl’ and as Julie Andrews' lover in spy thriller ‘The Tamarind Seed’.

After his initial stint in the spotlight, Sharif would come to be seen more frequently at the gaming tables than the Hollywood soundstage. He became particularly successful at bridge and was ranked among the world's best players. His film roles became increasingly sporadic, and those he did accept were in films he would later dismiss as "rubbish".

In the late 1990s Sharif began declining film offers, claiming he had lost his "self-respect and dignity". One film he did accept was 2003 French drama ‘Monsieur Ibraham’, in which he appeared as a Muslim shopkeeper in Paris who adopts a Jewish boy.

The film won him the Cesar, the French equivalent of the Oscar, as well as some of his best reviews in decades. Sharif spent much of his later years in Cairo and at the Royal Moncean Hotel in Paris, though he occasionally travelled to Hull to support his favourite football team, Hull City.

The actor, who was introduced to the Tigers by his Doctor Zhivago co-star Sir Tom Courtenay, was given an honorary degree by the University of Hull in 2010 as a reward for his loyalty. Earlier this year his agent confirmed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The actor was 83.