Sydney Omarr

Sydney Omarr (5 August 1926 – 2 January 2003) was an astrologer and counsellor to the rich and famous. While he wrote numerous books on the subject of astrology, including "My World of Astrology" and his autobiography "Answer in the Sky", he is probably the most widely known for his books on the popular Sun Sign astrology that endeavoured to predict a person's astrological influences based on his 'Sun Sign' - technically derived as the constellation providing the backdrop to the Sunrise on the day of a person's birth (such as Aries, Taurus, etc). He also wrote a daily Sun Sign horoscope column which appeared in more than 200 daily newspapers of the "Los Angeles Times" syndicate and which was read by millions. It is believedFact|date=August 2008 that Sydney Omarr has sold more books on the topic of astrology (over 40 million) than any other individual.

Omarr (born Kimmelman) was born into a modest Jewish background, being the son of a grocer and a housewife. Being a typical Leo who likes to gain centre stage, at the age of 15 he was performing sleight of hand tricks in magic shops and local talent shows. He regarded numerology as his first love, and wrote a few books including "Thought Dial" on the topic, but he was unable to earn a living at numerology so he pursued a similar natural inclination to astrology. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the Army and within a year he was the first and only astrologer for the Army. He wrote the horoscope column for the U.S. Army's "Stars and Stripes" newspaper, and he believed his private horoscope work for President Franklin D. Roosevelt won him that position.

When Omarr completed his stint in the Army, he attended Mexico City College and studied journalism, later to become a reporter for the United Press.

Omarr's first book was entitled "Sydney Omarr's Private Course on Numerology", which he self-published and sold for £2.00. The fact that people were actually prepared to read and even buy his written words no doubt was a boost to his very Leonine ego, and this success prompted him to carry on with his literary endeavours.

As Omarr became a rather prolific writer, he also reinvented himself as a celebrity in his own right, appearing on various radio and television shows to include Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, and Johnny Carson. He knew countless celebrities, and his wife Jeraldine Saunders was a former model, cruise director, and the creator of the "Love Boat" concept for ABC television.

Toward the end of his life, Omarr wrote a series of astrological guides published by Penguin, "Sydney Omarr's Day-By-Day Astrological Guide". While he authored the books up until his death, his protégés have taken over the work, and Signet continues to publish the series. He believed he had been an astrologer in many previous lifetimes, and he was able to do full planetary horoscopes in his head when given an individual's birth coordinates and birth time. For his "Los Angeles Times" syndicate columns, he wrote each and every daily horoscope column personally, usually three weeks in advance.

Perhaps the only thing that has really blighted Omarr's life was his health. In 1971 he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and as the disease slowly eroded his body he lost his sight in the early 1990s and became paralysed from the neck down.

Sydney Omarr died on 2 January 2003 at St John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California of a heart attack. His wife and friends were at his side. He is buried at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California

Omarr was born Sidney Kimmelman at 10:27 a.m. on 5 August 1926, in Philadelphia, with the Sun, Mercury and Neptune all in Leo, and Libra on the Ascendant.