Osman Ragheb

Osman Ragheb is an Egyptian actor and dialogue coach. He was born on 11 May 1926 in Nablus (now Palestine). His father was Egyptian with a Turkish mother, his mother was from Vienna, Austria, with a Hungarian father. He is fluent in four languages, Arabic, French, English and German. He was educated at an English school in Alexandria, Egypt, where he already did a lot of drama. Follwoing this, he studied chemistry in London, and during his time at university continued to appear in stage productions. After receiving his diploma in chemistry, he became a student at RADA and followed his dreams of becoming a professional actor. As a foreigner he found it impossible at the time to get work as an actor in Britain, and around 1960 he moved to Munich, Germany, where a lot of American films were produced. After initial difficulties like having to get rid of the Austrian Vienna accent he spoke due to his mother having from been there, he eventually found work, at first mostly in German TV productions. As the accomplished linguist he is, he also was in demand as a dialogue coach for international productions, including Cabaret (1972), The Odessa File (1974) and Schindler's List (1993). He usually also appears in a bit part in films where he is the dialogue coach.