Who is Khalid Abdalla – the Scots Crown star who plays Diana’s lover Dodi Fayed
THE surprise jewel in the Crown at this year's Scottish Baftas was when the actor, who plays Dodi Fayed, stunned the audience of A-listers by revealing he was actually from Glasgow.
Khalid Abdalla has been one of the breakout stars from the fifth series of the Netflix sensation as he sizzles on screen with Elizabeth Debicki as they portray the doomed romance of Princess Diana and the playboy film producer.
But last month the 41-year-old told a star-studded audience, including Brian Cox and Sam Heughan, that he was actually born in Scotland where his parents were both working as doctors after immigrating from their native Egypt in 1979.
Khalid stayed in Glasgow until the age of four before the family relocated to London, but still has vivid recollections of his time in the city - including his first crush.
He says: “My memory is of the place I played. I remember just playing and playing and playing, going out on my bicycle, running away from wasps in the back garden.
“My first girlfriend was there, my next-door neighbour, a beautiful brunette called Clare. Then we moved to London.”
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He was destined to follow in his parents’ footsteps until he discovered acting while attending King’s College school in Wimbledon.
Khalid - who also speaks fluent French and Arabic - says: “Like a lot of immigrant kids I was better at the sciences than the arts for a period of time.
“But when I was 15 my English teacher came up to me and said he was doing this play Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme and he thought I’d be good in it.
“I told him he was completely mad. But I remember entering on stage and suddenly it was this absolutely beautiful world where the rules were completely different.”
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Khalid began his screen career in 2005 in an episode of the BBC spy series Spooks before playing the real-life role of Ziad Jarrah - the jihadi pilot who hijacked one of the September 11 planes - in United 93 the follow year.
However, he believes nothing has prepared him for the response to landing a starring role in The Crown.
Speaking to the Scottish Sun, Khalid says: “I am getting a very positive reaction.
“Very slowly my life is changing in terms of how recognisable I am in the various different places when I am walking down the street.
“But I think one of the big things is that even though people knew it would feature Dodi there wasn’t an expectation that he would be as big a character as he is in the show.”
In one episode Dodi and his father Mohamed Al Fayed, portrayed by Salim Dau, meet on the set of Chariots of Fire as the famous running scene is filmed in the background.
Dodi was an executive producer on the 1981 Oscar-winning film after his billionaire father set him up in the movie business.
Although Khalid admits The Crown used a location in East Sussex to recreate the beach in St Andrews where one of the most iconic scenes in British cinematic history was filmed.
He says: “We shot that scene at Camber Sands but we did have a guy on our crew who had worked on Chariots of Fire who told us all about it.
“But it was a great scene to do. We were like ‘oh my god’. It started a game of us all trying to imagine what it must have been like to make the original film.
“I mean is there any other scene that could give the cast and a crew that much joy? So, yes everyone was just absolutely delighted to recreate it.”
It’s not just Diana fans who have been blown away by the performance of Debicki, 32, who has perfected every mannerism of the late Princess, as Khalid admits he was stunned too.
He says: “First of all, you look at her and it’s extraordinary, the likeness.
“In our first scene together at the races I almost could be meeting Diana for the first time too.”
But while his co-star had the luxury of being able to dive into a treasure trove of archive videos to nail the royal, Khalid admits he struggled to even discover what reclusive Dodi sounded like.
He says: “The Crown has an incredible research team.
“But I am pretty sure a lot of viewers will have Googled to find out if that’s what Dodi actually sounded like. That was one of the big questions for me too.
“There is only one recording of his actual accent. I actually managed to chase down a second, which is very short.
“So just imagine what it was like for me when I was actually doing it, trying to find this stuff. I also talked to some of his friends and others who knew him too.”
Viewers of The Crown also see real footage of Chariots of Fire producer David Puttnam personally thanking Dodi and his dad during his Academy Award acceptance speech.
However, in 2012 Lord Puttnam claimed he ordered Dodi off the set of the film - which told the story of devout Scottish Christian runner Eric Liddell at the 1924 Olympics - after he tried to give the cast cocaine.
Khalid says: “That brings together the bigger question for me - how can it be that Dodi has been on everyone’s lips for the last 25 years and people know nothing about him?
“So people are going ‘oh my god he did Chariots of Fire’ and others are like ‘he also did the movie Hook?’.
“Then there’s the various details about his life and they’ll have the word ‘playboy’, and that’s about it.
“But I think it says a lot about us culturally, the fact he was never mourned.”
Harrods heir Dodi met Diana in the summer of 1997 and sparked a paparazzi frenzy during their eight-week whirlwind romance before they both died in a car crash on August 31 in Paris.
And the lead up to the tragic events means that the Scots-born actor will return next year for possibly The Crown’s most controversial series yet.
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Khalid - who married his long term girlfriend Cressida Trew in 2011 - says: “Of course a lot of people thought that season five with Dodi meant that we would get to see their last summer.
“But that is for next season which is the stuff we’re shooting at the moment. I’m still filming it now. So I will definitely be back next year.”
