Omar Sharif: The Movie Star Who Loved Bridge More
Published August 5, 2026
Almost everyone knows the face — Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, the smile, the voice. But in the bridge clubs of Europe, Omar Sharif was known for something else entirely: as a first-rate bridge player who showed up at the table with cards in his hands and no camera in sight. It's one of the strangest, warmest stories in the bridge world — and there's a small lesson hiding inside it.
Not a famous guest — a genuine competitor
Sharif was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in April 1932. While building an international film career, he climbed to the very top of the bridge world, and at his peak he was rated among the 50 best players on the planet — not a celebrity making up numbers, but an opponent anyone would respect. In 1964 he represented Egypt (then competing as the United Arab Republic) at the World Bridge Olympiad, and in 1968 he played there as captain of the Egyptian team.
He was famous for rearranging film commitments when they clashed with an important bridge event. The line most often attributed to him says it best: acting was the profession, bridge was the passion.
The Omar Sharif Bridge Circus
In 1967 he did something nobody had tried before: he put a bridge team on the road. The "Omar Sharif Bridge Circus" included some of the greatest players in the game's history — the Italians Benito Garozzo, Giorgio Belladonna and Pietro Forquet of the legendary Blue Team, alongside Claude Delmouly and Leon Yallouze. They travelled from city to city across Europe, taking on the local experts in front of a paying audience.
And how does an audience watch a card game? With an invention called BRIDGE-O-RAMA: large screens that showed spectators the bidding and the cards as the hand unfolded. It was the great-grandfather of the live online broadcasts bridge fans watch today. Sharif's goal was simple — to lift bridge out of the quiet back room and turn it into a show worth buying a ticket for.
The night they won 5,470 points and lost money
In 1970 the Circus arrived at London's Piccadilly Hotel for an 80-rubber match against two British experts, Jeremy Flint and Jonathan Cansino. The stake was one pound sterling per point — enormous money for the time. The Circus won by 5,470 points, and yet, once all the costs of staging the spectacle were paid, Sharif himself came out behind. He really wasn't doing it for the money.
A newspaper column, books — even a computer game
For years his bridge column ran in the Chicago Tribune and was syndicated to papers around the world, so millions of readers met a bridge hand every morning next to their coffee. He also put his name to several well-loved books, among them Omar Sharif's Life in Bridge (1983) and Omar Sharif Talks Bridge (2004). In 1992 there was even a computer game called Omar Sharif on Bridge, with a tutorial mode for newcomers and Sharif's own voice guiding the play. In a way, the game in your pocket right now is that idea's grandchild.
And then he simply stopped
Around the year 2000 Sharif left bridge behind completely. He explained that the game had become something he could no longer control, that he did not want to be a slave to any passion — and so he gave up cards altogether. He died in Cairo in July 2015. The bridge world remembers him not for the films, but for bringing the game an audience that never knew it wanted to watch.
So where do you start?
Sharif's story is a nice reminder of one thing: the bridge a film star played at the Piccadilly is exactly the bridge people play in a living room. The same 13 cards, the same bidding, the same tricks. If you're just starting out, get to know how to play bridge and the rules of bridge first, then sit down and play your first hand.
J Bridge is a free bridge game in Hebrew and English: play against the computer, Yehudit teaches you step by step, no ads — and it works offline after the first load.