Probation, counseling for Omar Sharif

BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) - Actor Omar Sharif of "Dr. Zhivago" fame pleaded no contest on Tuesday to hitting a Beverly Hills parking attendant in the face and was sentenced to probation and anger management counseling.

Sharif, 74, the Egyptian-born actor who played the romantic gentleman lead in movies such as "Funny Girl" and "Lawrence of Arabia," did not appear in Beverly Hills Superior Court to settle the 2005 case but entered his plea through his lawyer.

A no contest plea is equivalent under California law to pleading guilty. Sharif had originally pleaded not guilty and changed his plea on the day his jury trial was set to begin.

He was sentenced to two years probation, 15 sessions of anger management counseling and told to stay away from the parking attendant. He was also fined $1,000.

According to a lawsuit filed by parking attendant Juan Anderson, Sharif was drunk when he left a Beverly Hills steakhouse around midnight in June 2005 and found that his car was not waiting for him.

Sharif demanded the parking valet find his car, offered him a 20 euro bill ($26) in payment, then assaulted him when the attendant refused to accept the money as payment, prosecutors said.

Sharif was charged with misdemeanor battery and could have been sentenced to a maximum six months in jail and a $2,000 fine.

In 2003, Sharif was given a one-month suspended sentence by a French court for head-butting a police officer in a suburban Paris casino.

Sharif has made more news in the past 20 years as a gambler and a bridge player than as an actor, writing books and newspaper columns and licensing his name to a 1992 computer game called "Omar Sharif Bridge."