CAIRO: Close friends and family paid respects on Sunday to cinema legend Omar Sharif, who will forever be remembered as the eponymous “Doctor Zhivago”, at a solemn funeral in his native Egypt.

Sharif, 83, died on Friday of a heart attack in an upmarket Cairo clinic after a struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

The funeral was held at the grand mosque of Mushir Tantawi in an eastern neighbourhood of the Egyptian capital, where key religious ceremonies are often held.

Sharif’s remains were later buried at El Sayeda Nafisa cemetery in the city’s south.

The service was attended by a group of Sharif’s relatives, friends and Egyptian actors, a correspondent reported.

His body was in a casket draped in the Egyptian flag and a black shroud.

Journalists outnumbered mourners, and there was no sign of any Hollywood stars at the memorial service, which was attended by Culture Minister Abdel-Wahed El-Nabawi.

“Omar Sharif represented Egypt to the world in the best possible way,” said Hussein Fahmy, a popular Egyptian actor who attended the funeral.

Zahi Hawass, the prominent archaeologist and former Egyptian antiquities minister, said he had “lost a close friend” while “the world lost a great actor”.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2015

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