‘Indiana Jones’ Actor Dies From Sepsis: Ahmed El-Shenawi Was 75

Egyptian-born actor Ahmed El-Shenawi, whose character served a “snake surprise” in Steven Spielberg’s 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, has died. El-Shenawi passed away in Chelsea, London on Feb. 1 after developing an infection that led to sepsis after he underwent an operation to repair a fracture, his daughter, Eman El-Shenawi, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 75.

One of six siblings, El-Shenawi had a “very lively family life in Egypt,” his daughter, Eman El-Shenawi, told THR. Her father worked as a head chef for Egyptair and five-star hotel restaurants, sparking El-Shenawi’s “love for Christmas and Western holidays.” In 1971, with a business degree from college, El-Shenawi relocated to London, where he began his entertainment career working for the BBC Arabic Service as an actor on a radio drama series. He would later become a member of the British Actors’ Equity Association.

El-Shenawi’s career spanned decades, but he was perhaps best known for his role in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Released in 1984, the actor notably beside Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones and Kate Capshaw’s Willie Scott at a long banquet table, where he served them a “snake surprise.” In the scene, El-Shenawi’s character, wearing pearl necklaces and a thick black mustache, sliced open the belly of a large snake, only for several other live snakes to slither out. In a 2011 tribute, his daughter wrote that her father spoke “in a British-tinged articulate accent,” and Spielberg “took note of his eloquent style, [telling him], ‘Ahmed, you are a Shakespearean-type actor.’”

Apart from his role in Indiana Jones, El-Shenawi also starred in Midnight Express (1978), starring Brad Davis, as a prisoner who inherits a radio. His other credits include Lars von Trier’s The Element of Crime (1984), the 1978 NBC miniseries adaptation of The Thief of Baghdad, the British television in The Professionals, Cannon and Ball, Muck and Brass, and Danger: Marmalade at Work, as well as Marmalade Atkins.

According to his daughter, El-Shenawi’s acting career “came to an abrupt standstill” after he underwent a stomach-stapling operation to control his weight. The actor told his daughter, “my character as the ‘chubby Arab man’ changed, and the agency would not find as much work for me as it did before when I was big. But I was still thrilled that I could wear a better selection of suits!”