Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#25664
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Omar Sharif represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 59 years in, and Omar is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Omar Sharif appears in 10 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Omar. Lawrence of Arabia is the clearest case: a film rated 7.9 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for tv movie, documentary, western. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Joe Johnston, John McTiernan, Blake Edwards and others, Omar Sharif helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) as Sherif Ali · Doctor Zhivago (1965) as Dr. Yuri Zhivago · Indiana Jones: The Search for the Lost Golden Age (2021) as Self - Actor (archive footage)
Career snapshot
Ranked #25664 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
10
1962–2021
Career length
59 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
Lawrence of Arabia
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Lawrence of Arabia
Most frequent director
David Lean
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With David Lean
Most common genre
Adventure
4 titles
Average runtime
2h 24m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.1
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1960s
6.9 average MV
The 1960s are where the work and the material meet. Mackenna's Gold, Funny Girl, The Night of the Generals — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1960s
6.9
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
7.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1960s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Mackenna's Gold, Funny Girl, The Night of the Generals.
Most productive era
1960s
6 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1960s | 1970s | 1990s | 2000s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.93 films | — | — | — | — |
| Action | 6.51 film | — | 6.71 film | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.61 film | — | — | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.91 film | 6.81 film | — | — | — |
| Crime | 6.61 film | 6.81 film | — | — | — |
| Romance | 7.12 films | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Sherif Ali. 7.9 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2021Indiana Jones: The Search for the Lost Golden Age
The current state of the argument, as Self - Actor (archive footage).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
10 of 10 films
as Sherif Ali
Directed by David Lean
as Dr. Yuri Zhivago
Directed by David Lean
as Sheikh Riyadh
Directed by Joe Johnston
as Nick Arnstein
Directed by William Wyler
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
Directed by Unknown
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Sherif Ali
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Sherif Ali gives Omar Sharif a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Dr. Yuri Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Performance score7.9
Doctor Zhivago asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. Yuri Zhivago is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Sheikh Riyadh
Hidalgo (2004)
Performance score7.3
Hidalgo asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sheikh Riyadh is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Nick Arnstein
Funny Girl (1968)
Performance score7.3
Funny Girl asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Nick Arnstein is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Sherif Ali
Start here. Lawrence of Arabia is the clearest statement of what Omar Sharif does — accessible, 228 minutes, and rated 7.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Omar at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Same director as Lawrence of Arabia, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Funny Girl (1968)
Keeps the romance register of Doctor Zhivago but asks for a colder reading of it.
Hidalgo (2004)
A deliberate change of key after Funny Girl — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Indiana Jones: The Search for the Lost Golden Age (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Hidalgo — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
David Lean
Director
2 films together
Notably Lawrence of Arabia
Anthony Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably The Fall of the Roman Empire
Anatole Litvak
Director
1 film together
Notably The Night of the Generals
William Wyler
Director
1 film together
Notably Funny Girl
J. Lee Thompson
Director
1 film together
Notably Mackenna's Gold
Blake Edwards
Director
1 film together
Notably The Pink Panther Strikes Again
John McTiernan
Director
1 film together
Notably The 13th Warrior
Joe Johnston
Director
1 film together
Notably Hidalgo
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
David Lean
Director
2 films together · 7.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Lawrence of ArabiaJoe Johnston
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HidalgoWilliam Wyler
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Funny GirlBlake Edwards
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Pink Panther Strikes AgainJohn McTiernan
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The 13th WarriorAnatole Litvak
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Night of the GeneralsJ. Lee Thompson
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mackenna's GoldAnthony Mann
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Fall of the Roman EmpireSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Hidalgo
as Sheikh Riyadh
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Doctor Zhivago
as Dr. Yuri Zhivago
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Lawrence of Arabia
as Sherif Ali
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Pink Panther Strikes Again
as Egyptian Assassin (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Lawrence of Arabia
as Sherif Ali
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Omar Sharif has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
59 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Adventure Legend
Awarded
4 catalogue titles in adventure, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Lawrence of Arabia
as Sherif Ali
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Night of the Generals
as Major Grau
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Doctor Zhivago
as Dr. Yuri Zhivago
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Night of the Generals
as Major Grau
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Lawrence of Arabia
as Sherif Ali
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The 13th Warrior
as Melchisidek
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Funny Girl
as Nick Arnstein
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The 13th Warrior
as Melchisidek
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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David Krumholtz
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Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Robert Downey Jr.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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