Photography by M. Sharkey
The grandson of legendary Doctor Zhivago actor Omar Sharif has been the face of Coca-Cola for the Arabic world and appeared in a major Calvin Klein print campaign in Egypt. But this past March he made his biggest -- and most commendable -- statement yet when he published a letter in The Advocate, in which he came out as gay and half-Jewish and castigated Egypt’s government for denying its citizens basic human rights. “I anticipate that I will be chastised, scorned, and most certainly threatened,” he wrote. “From the vaunted class of Egyptian actor and personality, I might just become an Egyptian public enemy.” Or, to some, a hero.
Photographed at Sun Studios in New York City on October 1, 2012
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