Homage to Omar Sharif as star dies aged 83

In Lawrence of Arabia, Omar Sharif is first seen in the distance, a speck in the swirling desert sand. As he draws closer, he emerges first as a black figure on a galloping camel, slowly transforming into a handsome, dark-eyed figure with a gap-tooth smile. It wasn’t unlike the Egyptian-born actor’s debut in Hollywood.

Sharif was Egypt’s biggest box-office star when David Lean cast him in 1962’s Lawrence of Arabia, but he was a virtual unknown elsewhere. He wasn’t even the director’s first choice to play Sherif Ali, the tribal leader with whom the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence teams up to help lead the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire.