Stella Bruzzi Professor of Film & Television Studies at the University of Warwick. In reponse to the death of Omar Sharif, she said,

"With the passing of Omar Sharif, one of the quintessential masculine stars of the 1960s, has now gone. In a very different mould to say Connery as James Bond, Sharif encapsulated the masculinity of the exotic: dark, mysterious, with watery come-to-bed eyes and definitely dangerous to know. In Lawrence of Arabia, he was pitted against another of cinema's masculine archetypes - the pent up, dashing British gentleman in Peter O'Toole in the title role.

Sharif, however, represented the unknown, the Other. He was definitely nowhere near hyper-masculine, in either the smooth Bond way or the hard Robert Mitchum way, but his charms were all the more subtle - and women fell for them. Think of the enduring appeal of Dr Zhivago in which he was certainly a match for Julie Christie's beauty. Outside cinema, Sharif was also a world-class backgammon player, which made him all the more exotic."

Alex Buxton

Communications Manager, University of Warwick

Tel: +44 (0)2476 150423

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Email: a.buxton.1@warwick.ac.uk