A former member of the Israeli Navy, handsome, lanky Oded Fehr left his homeland after completing military service and intended to pursue a business career in Europe. While in England, he opted to enroll in studies at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His career kicked into high gear shortly after graduating with the starring role in the stage play "Don Juan Comes Back From the War" at London's Courtyard Theatre and parts in the British TV-movies "The Knock" and "Killer Net". Fehr also landed his breakthrough feature role as the mysterious, tattooed Bedouin Ardeth Bay in the remake of "The Mummy" (1999). The producers were so impressed with his emoting that the script was altered to allow his character to survive for the sequel, "The Mummy Returns" (2001). Other offers quickly poured in and, in an attempt to avoid typecasting (and prove one agent wrong who told the aspiring actor, "You'll always have a tea towel on your head and an Uzi under your arm"), Fehr undertook the comic role of a slick European lover-for-hire in the Rob Schneidervehicle "Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo" (1999). Although he cast as an Egyptian Captain in the 1999 ABC miniseries "Cleopatra" and one of the thieves in the Aly Baba story in that network's 2000 miniseries "Arabian Nights", Fehr continued to confound expectations in his choice of film roles essaying a French Canadian thief pursued by the titular "Texas Rangers" (2001).