Anouk Aimee, Claudia Cardinale, Catherine Deneuve, Jean Paul Belmondo join Omar Sharif  Homage in Paris after Funeral Ban.

Omar Sharif with publicist Yanou Collart on her birthday at Le Boeuf Sur La Toit 197.

          When Omar Sharif had a fatal heart attack July 10th in a Cairo hospital and died at 83, many of his friends felt especially sad that their good time lover or chum had died alone. Only two months earlier Sharif’s son Tarek and his agent revealed what many already knew, that the star was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Up until November, 2014, Sharif was still working, filming “The Secret Scripture” for director Jim Sheridan.

          The actor’s assistant for fifty years, Catherine Marseka, his girlfriend Andrea Ferréol, and the Parisien publicist diva Yanou Collart, a friend and champion for decades, planned to attend his funeral in Egypt. Enraged when Sharif’s son refused to let anyone but press come to the mosque in a far corner of Egypt, Collart decided to organize an homage in Paris for friends, lovers and co-workers, cinemeastes and fans. It opens with a reception hosted by the Egyptian ambassador to France September 9 at the Cinema Mac Mahon.  

          Collart says she begged film world powers to join her in creating the memorial homage in Paris. She was devastated, she says, when French Cinematheque heads Costa Gravas and Serge Toubiana, Jack Lang now president of the Insitut du Monde Arabe and the American Deauville Festival President Bruno Barde all turned her down.

MGM “Behold a Pale Horse”

          “Outraged by their crass disregard, “ she asked Egyptian Ambassador to France, Ehad Badawi, to host an event organized by the actor’s close friends and herself. Then, she and journalist Henry Jean Savat who wrote a long tribute to the complex Sharif in the July 16 issue of Paris Match, persuaded David Gauthier, manager of the mythic Cinema Le Mac Mahon, to host two weeks of Sharif films, among them “Funny Girl,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “Mayerling,” “The Yellow Rolls Royce,” “Mr. Ibrahim and the Coran Flower.” And his favorite movie, “ Behold a Pale Horse.”

Omar, Casino manager at Trouville with Yanou, 1980

          Anouk Aimee, Claudia Cardinale, Elsa Martinelli, Catherine Deneuve and Jean Paul Belmondo have released personal memories of times with the dashing star and promised to come for the opening night screening of the remastered “Lawrence of Arabia” she says. They and Robert Hossein, Nicole Calfan, Arielle Dombasie, Jacky Narcissian and others have agreed to come back one other day during the screenings to present a film they shot with him.

          With no financing for the event, there are no funds to fly in stars from overseas, so Collart has asked Sharif co-stars Julie Christie, Barbra Streisand, Julie Andrews, Jacquline Bisset, Viggo Mortensen, Sophia Loren, Isabella Huppert, and others to tape their tribute on video to be screened during the homage. Europe l, Channel 2 and TV5 World have said they will cover the event. 

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