The Only Major Actors Still Alive From 1965's Doctor Zhivago

Classic melodrama, gorgeously lit actors against stark Russian landscapes — what's not to like about "Doctor Zhivago?" Released in 1965, the film based on Boris Pasternak's novel was a massive hit with audiences and critics alike. It was directed by David Lean, who was by then well-known for his eye for cinematography, and turned its stars — Omar Sharif and Julie Christie — into overnight sensations as two thirds of one of film's most compelling love triangles. "Doctor Zhivago" earned 10 Academy Award nominations (tied with "The Sound of Music" for the highest number that year), and ultimately took home five, winning for best screenplay, best art direction – color, best cinematography – color, best costume design – color, and best score. (The Academy Awards used to distinguish between black-and-white and color for many of its categories, although this was phased out just a few years after "Doctor Zhivago.")

In the years since this landmark epic romance hit theaters, we've lost many of the actors who made "Doctor Zhivago" so special. The magnetic Egyptian leading man Omar Sharif died of a heart attack in 2015, while his "Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia" co-star Sir Alec Guinness passed away in 2000 from cancer. Still, considering that "Doctor Zhivago" was released nearly 60 years ago, we're lucky that a significant number of the main cast members survive to carry on the film's legacy, including Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, and Rita Tushingham.

When Julie Christie took on the female lead role of the long-suffering Lara in "Doctor Zhivago" (a role, coincidentally, that American star Jane Fonda turned down, a choice she came to regret), she was just 25 years old, but was already well established in British cinema. Two years earlier, she had starred opposite her future "Doctor Zhivago" co-star Tom Courtenay in "Billy Liar," a performance that earned her a BAFTA nomination. But it was "Zhivago" that launched her into stardom, as she played the love interest of the titular Doctor Zhivago, crossing paths with him repeatedly amidst the chaos of World War I and the Russian Revolution.

For the next several decades, Christie remained a constant presence in the film community, receiving four Oscar nominations (and one win) over the course of five decades ("Darling" in 1966, for which she won best actress, "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" in 1972, "Afterglow" in 1998, and "Away From Her" in 2008"). Among modern audiences, she's perhaps best known for her work in "Don't Look Now," "Troy," "Finding Neverland," and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Her most recent performance was as the narrator in Emily Mortimer's 2017 period drama, "The Bookshop."

In "Doctor Zhivago," Geraldine Chaplin has perhaps the film's most thankless role. She plays Tonya, the wife of Yuri Zhivago. Tonya is a mild-mannered saint of a woman, beloved by her husband — but she can't compete with the chemistry he shares with Lara, especially when fate keeps throwing them into one another's paths. As an actress, Chaplin has one of the most impressive pedigrees you could imagine: She is the daughter of famed silent comedian Charlie Chaplin, and the granddaughter of celebrated playwright Eugene O'Neill. Her first on-screen work was an uncredited role in her father's 1952 film "Limelight," but despite her credentials, "Doctor Zhivago" was only her second credited film performance — it was far from her last, though.

In 1992, she had the unique experience of playing her own grandmother, when she was cast as Hannah Chaplin in the Robert Downey Jr-led biopic "Chaplin." More recently, she appeared in "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" and as an elderly Wallis Simpson on "The Crown." Now in her 80s, Chaplin has over 150 credits to her name, and is still working as an actress: She has two confirmed upcoming projects, the sci-fi western "The Wind Blew On" and the romantic comedy "Amar en Madrid." Chaplin is also passing on her family's legacy in Hollywood — her daughter Oona Chaplin starred in "Game of Thrones" as Robb Stark's ill-fated wife Talisa.

Pasha represents the revolutionary fervor in Russia, first as Lana's idealistic husband and later as a high-ranking Bolshevik leader. He's brought to life in "Doctor Zhivago" by Tom Courtenay, one of the premier actors of his generation in Britain. He first rose to prominence in 1962, with his leading performance in "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner," one of the so-called "kitchen sink" dramas featuring disillusioned young men that were popular at the time. In "Doctor Zhivago" four years later, he was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar, the only performer in the film to be acknowledged by the Academy (he was nominated a second time in 1984 for "The Dresser").

Although his most critically lauded work came during the first decades of his career, he has continued to make appearances in high-profile projects over the years, including "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and "The Aeronauts." Courtenay was last seen in 2022's "The Railway Children Return," and he has one upcoming project in post-production — "Queen at Sea," a drama starring Juliette Binoche.

Tonya (Rita Tushingham) only appears in the framing story of "Doctor Zhivago," as Yuri's half-brother Yevgraf (Alec Guinness) searches for his missing niece, the daughter of Yuri and Lara, a decade or two after the events of the film. All signs indicate that Tonya is that missing niece now grown up, and seemingly confirmed by her reputed talent at the balalaika, a musical instrument that was the orphaned Yuri's only inheritance from his late mother.

Born and raised in Liverpool, Tushingham began her career as an actor in 1961, when she was cast in "A Taste of Honey." She worked steadily over the next few decades, appearing in films such as "Being Julia" and "Last Night in Soho." Tushingham is still going strong — she has four projects on her slate in varying stages of production, including "L'Orto Americano," which was included in the 2024 lineup at the prestigious Venice Film Festival.