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Sammy Sheik (Arabic: سامي الشيخ; born November 15, 1981) is an Egyptian-American actor. He is best known for playing the role of "Mustafa" in Clint Eastwood's 2014 war drama film American Sniper.
Sammy Sheik. Actor: American Sniper. Sammy Sheik was born in Alexandria, Egypt. His passion for acting drove him to leave home shortly after high school and move to New York to study theatre. He soon landed his first film role in the Albert Brooks' satire comedy "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World", playing Al-Jazeera executive "Mukhtar Al ...
- January 1, 1
- 1 min
- Alexandria, Egypt
Sammy Sheik is an Egyptian actor who has appeared in films and TV shows such as Homeland, 24, United States of Tara and Lost. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and moved to New York to study theatre after high school. He is also a goodwill ambassador for Y-Peer, a youth education network.
- November 15, 1981
231K Followers, 1,467 Following, 401 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Sammy Sheik (@sammysheikog)
- 1 Chris Kyle Never Had to Shoot A Child
- 2 The 1998 U.S. Embassy Bombings Didn’T Influence Kyle’s Decision to Enlist
- 3 Rodeo Injuries Almost Prohibited Kyle from Joining The Military
- 4 Kyle’s Wedding Wasn’T Interrupted by The Outbreak of War
- 5 Mustafa Is Partly Fictional
- 6 The Butcher Is Fictional
- 7 The Scene in The Civilian House Was Invented For The Movie
- 8 Kyle and Taya Mostly Communicated Via Email
- 9 Kyle’s Friends’ Stories Are Fictionalized
- 10 The Bounty on Kyle’s Head Was Smaller and Applied to Any American Sniper
It Was A Woman Who He Shot Rather Than A Child
In the opening scene of American Sniper – and the opening of Kyle’s memoir – the pressures of Kyle’s sniping career are demonstrated when he sees a woman hand an anti-tank grenade to a child, who then approaches a U.S. military convoy, and Kyle has to decide whether to pull the trigger. In real life, there was no child (via The Guardian); the woman herself carried the grenade to the convoy. Kyle described this incident as “the only time I killed anyone other than a male combatant.”
Kyle Wanted To Enlist Since High School
In the movie, Bradley Cooper's Kyle is motivated to enlist in the U.S. military when he watches the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings on television. However, this didn’t influence Kyle’s real-life decision to enlist (via Slate). Kyle had intended to join the militaryafter he graduated from high school. The filmmakers simply used it as a visual shorthand to demonstrate Kyle’s need to defend his country. It also had nothing to do with a cheating girlfriend, as the film suggests.
Kyle Wasn't Accepted At First Like He Was In The Movie
When Kyle first enlisted to join the military, he was turned down due to injuries he had sustained from bronco-busting rodeos (via Slate). While he did get a full-time ranch job after he left Tarleton State University after attending for two years (before dropping out), Kyle got a call from Navy recruiters who had changed their minds and decided to accept him into the Marines. The movie streamlines this part of the story to save time, so Kyle goes straight from the rodeo circuit to Marine wea...
Kyle Already Knew About His Deployment
In the movie adaptation of American Sniper, Kyle’s wedding to his wife, Taya (played by Sienna Miller), is interrupted by the news that America is going to war following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In real life (via Slate), Kyle had already learned that he was going to be deployed, so he and Taya decided to get married during a brief period of leave from military training before he was shipped off to war.
Mustafa Was Never Really Kyle's Nemesis
The American Sniper movie introduces a Syrian sniper named Mustafa, an ex-Olympic sharpshooter (played by Sammy Sheik), who is Kyle's main "opponent". This is a partially fictional character (via The Guardian). A notorious sniper is briefly mentioned in one paragraph of Kyle’s memoir, but he’s not the main villain of the story like he is in the movie. In his book, Kyle wrote, “I never saw him, but other snipers later killed an Iraqi sniper we think was him.” This is one of the most Hollywood-...
The Butcher Was Made Specifically For The Movie
Mido Hamada plays “The Butcher,” an infamous terrorist who attacks small children, in the movie adaptation of American Sniper. The Butcher is depicted as al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s second-in-command. Although he’s thought to be inspired by Ismail Hafidh al-Lami, also known as Abu Deraa (via The Guardian), who was blamed for thousands of deaths in the mid-2000s, the Butcher is a fictional character.
The Scene Was Added For Additional Tension
In one scene in the American Sniper movie, Kyle and his fellow SEALs take shelter in a civilian house, where they are welcomed with a meal. However, when they find weapons hidden under the floorboards, they realize the family is pro-insurgency and enter an intense shootout with them. This scene doesn’t appear in Kyle’s memoir and was invented just for the film (via Slate).
The Phone Calls Were Just To Add A Personal Touch To American Sniper
In the American Sniper movie, Kyle frequently speaks to his wife Taya on the satellite phone, and she’s horrified to hear the sounds of battle in the background. In reality (via The Washington Post), this only happened once. Kyle and Taya mostly communicated via email, but that’s nowhere near as cinematic as a phone call where the actors can express all their emotions through dialogue, so the filmmakers changed the emails to phone calls.
Kyle Never Disrespected Lee's Death In Real Life
Both the memoir and its film adaptation feature many of Kyle’s friendships on the battlefield, but the two friends who recur the most – in both the book and the movie – are Ryan “Biggles” Job (played by Jake McDorman), and Marc Lee (played by Luke Grimes). In the film, Biggles is blinded by Mustafa, bolstering Kyle’s quest for vengeance against the fictional Syrian sniper, and dies shortly after proposing to his girlfriend. In real life (via Slate), Biggles was discharged after his injury att...
Kyle Wasn't Special Enough To Get A Unique Bounty
The American Sniper movie illustrates Kyle’s notoriety with posters bearing his tattoos, which promised a $180,000 bounty to anyone who killed him. However, the reward was actually in the $20,000 to $80,000 range, and it applied to any American sniper, not just Kyle. It turns out that Kyle himself debunked this part of the movie when she spoke to Conan O'Brien and explained that the enemy did want him dead, but they had the same bounty for all the American snipers that the insurgents could kill.
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Sammy Sheik is an Egyptian-born actor who has appeared in various films and TV shows, such as American Sniper, Lone Survivor, and Homeland. See his filmography, ratings, reviews, and photos on Rotten Tomatoes.
Dec 16, 2014 · Watch Sammy Sheik, who plays Mustafa in American Sniper, answer questions about the film. The interview is part of the trailer and featurettes section of TrailerAddict, a website for movie trailers and clips.
