Omar Sharif in the late 1970s. (Credit: AFP)
In early July 1967, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees, Omar Sharif made the front page of every political daily in Egypt for the first time.“To his compatriots, he was, at that stage, a model of international success. When he appeared like this — just three weeks after the Six-Day War ended — every newsroom was appalled,” recalls Soha al-Kordy, a former culture writer at al-Ahram.Filming in New Jersey at the time, the actor received a furious call from his mother, warning him about the scandal shaking Egypt. She told him not to return and said she had hidden the day’s papers from his partner, Faten Hamama, the legendary actress living quietly in a villa overlooking the Nile. Look back at Sharif's costars 'The only sane actress in a world of neurotics': Claudia, the Cardinale of the Mediterranean Three nights earlier, a...
In early July 1967, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees, Omar Sharif made the front page of every political daily in Egypt for the first time.“To his compatriots, he was, at that stage, a model of international success. When he appeared like this — just three weeks after the Six-Day War ended — every newsroom was appalled,” recalls Soha al-Kordy, a former culture writer at al-Ahram.Filming in New Jersey at the time, the actor received a furious call from his mother, warning him about the scandal shaking Egypt. She told him not to return and said she had hidden the day’s papers from his partner, Faten Hamama, the legendary actress living quietly in a villa overlooking the Nile. Look back at Sharif's costars 'The only sane actress in a world of neurotics': Claudia, the Cardinale of the Mediterranean Three nights...
