Omar Sharif, 83, star of 'Lawrence,' 'Dr. Zhivago'

CAIRO - Omar Sharif, 83, the Egyptian-born actor with the dark, soulful eyes who soared to international stardom in the movie epics Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, died Friday.

Mr. Sharif died of a heart attack in a Cairo hospital, according to his longtime agent, London-based Steve Kenis, and the head of Egypt's Theatrical Arts Guild, Ashraf Zaki. The actor had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Mr. Sharif was Egypt's biggest box-office star when director David Lean cast him in 1962's Lawrence of Arabia. But he was not the director's first choice to play Sherif Ali, the tribal leader with whom the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence teams up to help lead an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire.

Lean had hired another actor but dropped him because his eyes weren't the right color. The film's producer, Sam Spiegel, went to Cairo for a replacement and found Mr. Sharif.

His entrance in the movie was stunning. He was first seen in the distance, a speck in the swirling desert sand. As he drew closer, he emerged first as a black figure on a galloping camel, slowly transforming into a handsome, dark-eyed figure with a gap-tooth smile.

The film brought him a supporting-actor Oscar nomination and international stardom.

Three years later, Mr. Sharif demonstrated his versatility by playing the leading role of a doctor-poet who endures decades of Russian history, including World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, surviving on his art and his love for his beloved Lara. Lean's adaptation of the Boris Pasternak novel Doctor Zhivago had a rocky beginning in its first U.S. release. Attendance was sparse and reviews were negative.

After MGM removed it from theaters and Lean re-edited the sprawling tale, it became a box-office hit. Still, Mr. Sharif never thought it was as good as it could have been.

Mr. Sharif never achieved that level of success again, but remained a sought-after actor.

He played Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Italian traveler Marco Polo, and Mongol leader Genghis Khan. He was a German officer in The Night of the Generals, an Austrian prince in Mayerling, and a Mexican outlaw in Mackenna's Gold. He was Jewish gambler Nicky Arnstein opposite Barbra Streisand's Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. The 1968 film was banned in Egypt because he was cast as a Jew.

Away from the movies, Mr. Sharif was a world-class bridge player who for many years wrote a newspaper column on bridge.